The War Game
by QTXAdsy
Summary: Macavity is ready for his ultimate attempt to wipe the Jellicle Tribe out once and for all, and only one unlikely Tom will have the fate of the tribe in his paws. Will he be able to stop this evil or will he die without telling the one he loves how he truly feels?
1. The Vision

**Well, here we are then, the one CATS fic I've been wanting to do for a little while now. Now I won't say much that the other CATS related fics I've done have been warm ups to this one, though although some are oneshots, they follow in an order and this one takes place before the setting of this one. but anyway, this chapter is the prologue that sort of settles the scene and takes place before the events of the show, also introduces us some characters that will appear later on.**

**So without further ado, its time to begin this story! **

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**Chapter 1**

**The Vision**

The heavy fog had never left the city of London all day, and was still hanging over the city throughout that night. Though there was little to no humans anyway in this part of the city this late in the night, it didn't stop letting all the city's thousands of cats to appear, and for some in this section of London, it was yet another night of guarding their base.

Nestled up on two metal rubbish bins within an alleyway alongside St Pancras railway station, two toms about four years old in human years, one was a brown tabby and the other a grey long haired tom, both sat watching for any signs of any suspicious activates that might come their way. The two of them shivered in the night air, many passing by would wonder why they wouldn't they go simply for the comfort of any indoor area, for they had to task of guarding this rundown part beside the station, which neither cat nor human hardly step foot in the area, especially for any cat. For this was the lair, St Pancras, was the haunt of the infamous mystery cat of London, the napoleon of crime...Macavity.

Furthermore, it was these two toms on guard duty that were only a few of the many stray or feral cats that Macavity had taken in for his own troops. Each one having their own skill either fighting, thieves, stealthy messengers to report or even ones that had a rare ability that the mystery cat was very keen for them to train those up for the future...magic.

"Bast I'm freezing out here!" The long grey haired tom shivered. "And we're been out here for hours and nothing has happened!"

The brown tabby didn't stare at his companion and continued to stare into the fog trying to make out anything within that thick smog. "Relax Nicolae," He spoke calmly. "You do remember that Macavity has placed us in charge on look out duty among all the others."

"But why is that, Adamin?" Nicolae asked, rubbing his paws together trying to keep warm in the winter air.

This time, the brown tabby stared at Nicolae with his brownish eyes and unruffled expression. "It's his way of giving us his respect to us. By the end of this when we're done, we'll be up the ranks soon."

"Either that or he hates you for not being perfect at magic," Nicolae offered dryly.

Adamin sighed sadly. He was one of the rare magic cats that Macavity, he himself being a magical cat himself (something that any cat finding out this fact would explain how he could escape from any situation) and that despite being trained by Macavity since he was found as a lost kitten, he still hadn't really mastered it, even now as an adult. He looked up towards the rooftops of the gothic looking station expecting to see the mystery cat up on the rood looking down, Adamin felt like he was a failure in his master's eyes.

"I hope I've been getting better," Adamin replied melancholy.

"To be honest," Nicolae said with a slight twinkle in his green eyes. "I think you have been getting better lately."

Adamin said nothing and carried on looking ahead into the fog. "One thing though has been bothering about Macavity of late."

The grey tom cocked a curious expression. "Oh yeah? What's that then? Was it something my dad said with those visions?"

"No not that," the brown tabby corrected. Nicolae's father was Augustus, one of the oldest cats in among Macavity's forces. Augustus and Nicolae had offered to join Macavity after running away from their own tribe some years ago, why they left was something that the two never brought up. Augustus however had a rare ability of seeing visions of random moments into the future, and this made the old tom a useful asset of the mystery cat for his various plans. Though sadly, the elder tom had been struggling of late of living and now never left the lair, not to mention the bitterly cold weather made it all the more worse for the poor elder cat.

Nicolae didn't say anything as his thoughts drifted back to his dad; it was when a sudden gust of cold wind broke him out of his thoughts. "Then, what is that is on your mind?"

"It's those two queens that Macavity brought back with him some months ago," Adamin reflected, remembering the day when two queens, both sisters, one a young black and gold queen and the other an older scarlet one, had been invited up into their leader's lair. Since they arrived, neither the two of them nor the rest of Macavity's forces had seen them since. "I think he's up to something."

"He's _always_ up to something," Nicolae replied sarcastically, not really thinking deep into the subject. "He's the master of all crime in London, and the humans don't know it."

"I know _that_," Adamin groaned rolling his eyes. "I mean…what do you think he wants them for? And what were their names again…De…Dem…Demeter was one I think and what was the other?"

"Bombalurina I think," Nicolae added. "Isn't that one quite a looker don't you think?"

"Well…yes," Adamin admitted. "But why does he want a queen here for, let along two?"

Nicolae began to think over his friend's question fully. In truth, he didn't know himself though he did remember that night when the scarlet queen had ran away from the lair and was never to be seen again, leaving just this queen called 'Demeter' behind.

"He has been quite standoffish of late have you noticed?" Nicolae noted.

"Yeah," Adamin nodded. "There's been rumours flying about saying they been having arguments about something…hopefully he doesn't know we're all listening to them, right?"

"...Hang on," The grey tom thought for a moment for slapping his forehead. "Of course!"

"What is it?"

"Don't you get it?"

"What?"

"He wants that queen to become his _MATE_!"

The two were silent and didn't say anything for about a minute it felt, but the brown tabby was incredulous. That seemed out of character for Macavity to do such a thing, for him, all that the mystery cat wanted to do was take over the world or other destructive ideas, but this idea was not the Macavity he knew. But then again, _why_ did he want those two queens for whatever reason in the first place?

"Just doesn't make any sense," Adamin sighed and rubbing the back of his neck. "I always t—" He stopped abruptly and stood up seeing something in the fog, coming towards them. "Heads up, we have visitors."

Realizing what his guard partner was saying, Nicolae stood up and stared at the unknown figures that were getting closer to them. But unlike the brown tabby, he had other ideas. "They could be some of our guys coming back from a patrol."

"I don't remember a patrol being ordered," Adamin hissed, his eyes narrowing at the unknown figures, he could now count four of them.

Finally the figures emerged from the mist and it was only then that the two guarding toms could see for themselves who they were. To their surprise, they recognized one of them almost straight away, the red queen Bombalurina. She was leading three toms, one a silver tabby, one a black and gold Maine Coon and finally a black and white bi-coloured tabby.

The four cats, who were headed towards a hole in the side of the station building, which itself was the entrance to the lair (it itself was in fact some sort of a labyrinth under the station platforms), they didn't seem to notice Adamin and Nicolae who still didn't understand what was going on.

"Why is she back for?" Nicolae asked still dumbfounded.

Then suddenly, a thought dawned on them, they had forgotten why Bombalurina would even return to this place. _Demeter_. She was after her sister, and this was a rescue mission.

The two toms stared at each other in shock. "We've got to tell the others!" Cried Adamin and the two quickly rushed over to the small entrance, in which the party of four had entered without strangely any resistance, where were the other guards? Were they the only ones on guard duty? That didn't matter right now as now; all they had to do now was stop the intruders.

They ran into the entrance and we're greeted by the sound of fighting taking place. "Where are they?" Nicolae frantically asked staring around in the darkness looking for them.

"Up there!" the brown tabby cried pointed towards the tatty looking staircase, that would've been used by the humans to get down to this level from the station platform, and there they saw the four intruders fighting off several of the Macavity's guards and knocking them to the floor, no doubt that soon the rest would be alerted to the seen.

"Quick, use your magic!" Nicolae yelled to the brown tabby.

A little smirk appeared on his face, this was a good chance to show of his magic that he'd been learning. "Have some of THIS!" And he fired a stream of lightning from his hand, but the party of four dodged the attack and hurried on heading deeper into the den.

Adamin tried to fire again just as they were nearly out of sight, but then all that he fired was a small shot of electricity that simply evaporated into the air.

"What was that?" The grey haired tom asked, stunned seeing what had happened to Adamin.

"Damn it!" The brown tabby cried as he tried again to shoot anymore lightning. "I always use up to much of my power, really have to learn to use not much of it!"

"Never mind that!" Cried Nicolae as he began running down the area that those four cats had gone down. "We've gotta catch those guys first!"

Forgetting briefly about his magic problems, Adamin followed on after his partner, with several others of Macavity's Hench cats joining them in the chase. What stunned the two of them was seeing several of the cats that had tried to fight of the intruders all lying on the ground looking pretty beat up, it seemed like these guys Bombalurina had with her were going to stop at nothing to get Demeter. Just then, Adamin had an idea as he and the others ran down the dark corridor.

"Wait a minute," Adamin said to Nicolae stopping him and pulling him to one side. "I've just noticed they're heading down that route that leads to Macavity's den."

"Yeah, so what? Nicolae replied as he saw the group heading round a corner onto the left in this maze of brick tunnels. "We have to stop them now!"

"No don't you get it?" Adamin explained. "See where they're going? Where they're going, there's another route that leads right directly in front of them, we can stop them there."

Nicolae looked over at a small hole in the brick wall, not really easily seen by human eye, but was just some of the many that the two toms near of the back of their paws. "Of course! Hopefully by then your magic will be ok then."

"Only one way to find out," Adamin uttered as they squeezed into the hole in the wall and hurried as fast as they could so they could face of those four cats on the other side of the tunnel, the brown tabby leading the way through.

The tunnel was quite icy due to the cold weather and led to quite a bit of slipping from both of them. Finally though they made it to the other side and thankfully for them, the interlopers had not arrived yet as they could hear their voices coming down the corridor. This was Adamin's chance to prove himself to Macavity.

From out of the darkness, Bombalurina's gang appeared and Adamin prepared to stop them by firing his lightning bolts at them. "Stop right there!" He cried as he flung his arms forward expecting his magic to work.

It didn't.

An awkward silence followed in that tight corridor as the embarrassed Adamin looked at his paws trying to figure out what had gone wrong. He let his arms hang by his side as he looked up at the four intruders, neither of them didn't know if to laugh at him nor be scared at what might happen next.

As Adamin tried to think of something to say, he didn't notice his own paws started to glow with magic, just as he started to feel his paws starting to tingle, it was too late to react. A sudden blast of magic from his paws pushed the unfortunate tabby up in the air and banged his head on the ceiling. From this impact, Adamin was knocked out as he fell towards the ground. It that moment, he would not have the chance to know what had happened as everything faded to blackness.

**XXX**

For what felt like an age, all that Adamin felt or saw was blackness and heard nothing. Then he began hearing voices, well, one as the sound carried on.

_"Come on, you're almost awake,"_ Came the voice, it sounded muffled at first, but then became clearer as he soon recognized it.

Slowly he opened his eyes, and then he could see a grey long hair tom looking over him, one that he knew only too well.

"Adamin," Nicolae said in a relive manner. "You alright?"

"Ugh," Adamin groaned as he tried to open his eyes further.

"Take that as a no then," Nicolae replied with a small grin on his face.

The brown tabby slowly sat up and looked around him, he was in the grey tom's den. "What…what happened?" He asked while rubbing his eyes.

Nicolae bit his lip and looked away. "Well…how do I put this?"

Adamin could read the expression on his friend's face, a face of disappointment. "…Let me guess…they got away?"

"Yes," Nicolae sighed sadly. "And they took Demeter with them back to wherever they came from."

Adamin didn't respond and only kept starring at his friend. "Wait…they took Demeter…and that was it? Nothing else?" He didn't know, he expected a big fight to take place with Macavity involved, and this just seemed rather anticlimactic for him.

"Yeah just like that," Nicolae replied curtly. "I didn't know what happened up in the boss's den, but I do remember that silver tabby carrying her out like if she was his mate or something...maybe she was."

"But how long was I out for?" Adamin then asked.

The grey tom suddenly chuckled and rubbed the back of his head. "You aren't going to get over it, you've been knocked out for two nights n—"

"TWO NIGHTS?" Adamin jerked forward, "W-what happened to me?"

Nicolae didn't know how to respond. "The thing is…you knocked yourself out from that failed magic attack, remember?"

Adamin opened his mouth, but nothing came out as he then remembered the moment right up until he was knocked out. "Oh no…how many saw me?" He placed his paws over his head.

"Um…a few?" Nicolae replied sheepishly, he didn't want to know how the brown tabby felt.

"Oh Everlasting cat," Adamin shuddered. "I'd hate to see Macavity now. What would he say to me?"

"Well that's one thing you can be lucky about," Nicolae explained. "You won't have to meet him."

"Huh? How'd you mean?"

"The thing is after Demeter was taken away by those intruders, Macavity was furious with our efforts and went on for goodness knows how long about how crap we were and wanting us to double our efforts next time…maybe it was a good thing that you didn't have to listen to him back then."

"Even if I failed to stop them or have to take the blame?"

"_Everyone_ is blame in Macavity's eyes."

The two of them didn't say anything and instead looked through a small window looking out seeing the various members of Macavity's forces passing by now and again. They both shivered as even if they were in a den, the wind still found it's way through the cracks and into the den, making the two toms freeze from the cold.

Adamin pulled over a dirty blanket nearby and wrap it round him to try and keep warm. "Bast it's cold."

"Yeah, though I don't know if Dad's going to last tonight, let alone this winter," Nicolae noted with a hint of worry in his voice.

Adamin, not knowing out Augustus' condition with him being out for two nights, feared the worse. "How bad is he now?"

"Terrible," Nicolae sighed with a shudder, his head drooping sadly. "I've been told to wait until I get the call to come back to him…they say he is having a vision about something with the Jellicles or somewhat like that."

The brown tabby felt sad for Augustus, but then suspiciously looked at Nicolae. He did know that the Jellicles were the tribe of Demeter and Bombalurina and he could only make a small guess that those three toms Bombalurina had come with were from that tribe. "...You sure? Interesting…anything else with him?"

Adamin then thought about it, maybe the tribe was going to pull off a revenge attack on them? Unlikely that they would be attacking the most well known cat in London's entire cat world, but nonetheless he didn't want to feel too sure after what had happened two nights ago.

Nicolae then looked through a hole (that was a makeshift window) and saw a large black tomcat heading towards his den. "Nothing yet…but it looks like we will soon."

The black cat opened the door, which was just a small plank of wood hanging gingerly on, and looked like he had run a mile. "You must come now," He panted.

"Is it my Dad?" Nicolae asked, hoping that the Everlasting cat would give his father a chance to live some more.

The black cat's lips formed into a tight line, an expression that told Nicolae everything he didn't want to hear. "I'm afraid there is nothing more we can do…you must come now if you want to say goodbye to him."

Nicolae didn't respond for a brief moment, as if he was only just drinking it all in, then without warning, he shot off out of the den and headed onwards towards the medical den, the other two toms following right behind him.

**XXX**

It wasn't long until the three of them arrived at the den in which Augustus had been staying in for some days now and Nicolae was doing his best to hold back his tears, the thought of his father dying in his arms was now something that was about to become no longer a dream, but a reality. Neither of them say any words until they entered the den, only three cats were in that den, a medical cat that was looking over, a small calico tom-kit which Adamin and Nicolae knew as Mungojerrie, a tom that was training in being a thief and for _some_ reason was here rather than learning his education in being a thief. And finally lying there with a blanket draped over him was Augustus.

Without hesitation, Nicolae rushed to the side of his dad, the two of them were a spitting image of each other with them together in the room.

"Will e' be ok?" Mungojerrie asked innocently.

Adamin bit his bottom lip and cast a sad look at the young tom-kit "Come on Mungo, go out and play with the other kits. You are too young for this"

"But I wanna see what's wrong with 'em," Mungo replied looking up at the brown tabby with his big green eyes.

Adamin sighed and shook his head. "No, just go out and get on with that training, don't want to get in trouble from the boss, eh?"

The young calico muttered a disappointed 'ok' and quickly left the den. Once he left, the remaining cats in the room focused on the dying grey tom.

"I'm sorry," The medical cat uttered looking at them. "There's nothing more I can do to help him."

Augustus didn't reply and only breathed in and out slowly and Adamin felt a lump in his throat. From the day he joined Macavity he had know about the elder cat for all these years. He didn't want to know how his dear friend was feeling.

"Dad," Nicolae expressed sadly with tears forming in his eyes.

"The vision…"Augustus suddenly spoke up and at once and others closely looked over him trying to listen what else he had to say. "…There's…a kitten…a tom…Macavity."

Adamin and Nicolae looked at each other trying to figure what Augustus was trying to say, the problem of these riddle like answers Augustus would say would always make them think hard about it.

"What tom?" Asked the black cat asked behind them.

"And Macavity?" Nicolae added.

Augustus let out a loud cough that made the four remaining cats in the room stop breathing for a moment, thinking that he was about to die, but thankfully that didn't happened. "An heir," Augustus replied weakly, his eyes shutting slowly. "M…Macavity's heir…the tom will…bi-coloured, cream and brown…will stop…him…"

"An heir?" Adamin asked in a stunned manner, never expecting this. "Wait…Macavity's heir? He has a _son_?"

The elder grey longhaired tom let out another cough that sounded like a 'NO!' to them, before his head fell back on the pillow. "Ma…Macavity…will fall."

And with that, Augustus closed his eyes for the last time and Nicolae held his dad's body in his arms, which he slowly started to sob into his father's chest.

Adamin lowered his head and muttered a silent pray before looking at the black tom in the room. "Tell Macavity that Augustus has finally left us," the brown tabby ordered and the black cat nodded and hurried off out off the den to tell the news.

Adamin could only watch sadly as his friend carried on sobbing in grief, the medical cat leaving the den to give them some privacy. But it was what Augustus' last words were that made the brown magical cat think.

An heir? Some cream and brown tom? Overthrow Macavity?

He didn't know for sure at that moment…though from this point however, was only the start of the story.

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**Well that's the first chapter, and it's a bit shaky as I'm not sure if it's that good. The next will chapter will be set with the Jellicles and is when the story takes off, but I'm curious to know what you think of Adamin and Nicolae as I don't want them to be bad OC's as they will appear later on, older ofc! But until then, review to see what that vision could be!**


	2. Blood And Rain

**It's an update and god this one is really dark...like _really_ dark. In this chapter we meet the Jellicles and they've grown up since you might remember seeing them, our kittens are now young adults. Now this was originally going to be spilt into two chapters but then I thought 'why not?' So in this chapter, we'll see our heroes...so nothing else to say other than read and brace yourself!**

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**Chapter 2**

**Blood And Rain **

It was another sunny morning in the Junkyard, though it wasn't warm with it being in January. Several areas of the yard that had puddles of water were now replaced by ice and the cold weather wasn't bringing many members of the tribe out of their dens. For one member of the tribe though, it was just another day in the life of Jellicles.

Admetus had stayed the night in the Junkyard due to his human owners having a wild party and promptly gotten out of the house to make company with the tribe. The patched tom craned his neck up as he looked outside of his den and drew in a deep breath soaking in the fresh morning air. Then he looked around seeing that there were no other members of the Jellicles in the yard and Admetus groaned in slight annoyance, it seemed like the rest of the tribe had left the yard or were still in their dens.

"Ah well," he sighed as he walked out his den. "Better wake up those three sons of mine."

The tom then began walking over to Tumblebrutus' den, which was set on the other side of the yard. Just a few months ago after Tumblebrutus and Pouncival had finally reached adulthood, both being littermates, the two were then sent to find their own dens within the yard, much like how Plato had done before them. That itself hadn't really gone to plan as Pouncival's chosen den was within a large rusty oil drum, but shortly after claiming it for his own, there had been an unexpected clear out of the Junkyard by the yard owner, thankfully many of the cats' dens remained intact, but poor Pouncival's prized den was sent away to get scrapped, thankfully his beloved chair remained intact.

Admetus shook his head as he remembered that day, the poor son of his had a panic of nowhere to go and found the cream and brown bi-coloured tom staying in the same den with a very reluctant and annoyed Tumblebrutus. Though to make matters worse, that was only half of the story.

The patched tom rounded a corner and soon came face to face with a dirty looking pressure cooker, which was in fact Tumblebrutus' den. Admetus knew that within that den weren't only Tumblebrutus and Pouncival, but also rather surprisingly Plato. That night was one night that he and his sons would be very happy to forget in a hurry. Shortly after reaching adulthood, Tumblebrutus had the plan to go out on the town and try pull a few queens, even if Plato was Victoria's mate and Pouncival being in a relationship with Jemima.

It was a disaster waiting to happen.

Pouncival and Plato were very right saying they didn't want to go through with it, but Tumblebrutus said it was just for the night and that they would head back to the Junkyard as if nothing ever happened, though it was really a cover just for Tumble to find himself a mate. Towards the end of the night while in an alleyway somewhere near the Junkyard, the three toms had collected three pretty looking queens for themselves as dates, it seemed that that Tumble's plan was working, only then once they went out of the alleyway to come face to face with Jemima _and_ Victoria.

Their respected queens dumped both Pouncival and Plato right on the spot and the whole evening was ruined for all. Tumblebrutus though, despite feeling bad for what had happened, still felt good that he had at last gotten himself a queenfriend. Though after seeing what had happened to the two brothers, the queen felt terrible and left him. In the end, there were no winners, just losers.

Since then they had all been staying in Tumble's den after being thrown out by their queens dens, though Pouncival had at least tried to find a den unlike Plato. Admetus didn't want it to end like that and hope that somehow, things would get back like they were before. He at last approached the 'door' (a wooden plank) and knocked, hoping for a response.

No reply.

"Hello?" Admetus called knocking once more. "Are you three up yet?

Still no reply from inside the den.

Admetus scrunched his face up in frustration. "If you do not respond I'm coming in!"

Like before, nothing.

With a sad groan, Admetus knocked the door down and saw a sad image on the floor…his three sons lying on top of each other with rotten tuna and other types of food lying around the den in a mess. Not only was it the moldy smell that got to him, the sight of his three sons like this broke his heart, how could it happen to his family like this?

"Wake up you lot!" Snapped Admetus and in a mad ruffle, the three sons fell off one another and stared up to look at their dad. Noticing whom it was, they quickly stood up shoulder to shoulder. By now Pouncival and Tumblebrutus had grown since that night about a year ago at the Ball with Grizzabella, they were still quite lanky like Plato but they did look like young adults now, though Pouncival, bring the runt of the pair, was still a head shorter than the others. Also, the cream and brown bi-coloured tom had also acquired a new blue strap-like collar, something that he never would want when he was a kitten.

"Oh…hi dad!" Tumblebrutus muttered disheveled.

"Sorry 'bout the mess," Pouncival added sheepishly looking around them.

"What the hell have you been up to?" Admetus replied in a state of shock and anger and then he sniffed the air of what smelt like catnip, he feared the worse.

Plato nearly stumbled on an empty tuna can. "I…I can't remember I—HIC!"

The three other toms looked at eldest son with a mixture of bemused and disappointed looks. Out of all of them, Admetus was the most unimpressed of the lot. "Never mind that, look at the state of you, it's only a week before your birthday and your suppose to keep a good image."

Tumblebrutus scoffed. "I don't think we can after that night."

The father placed his paws over his face in irritation. "Everlasting cat help us…"

Just then Tumblebrutus interrupted. "Well then, I believe we should be out like dad says so."

"You've changed your tune," Pouncival eyed his littermate warily seeing that he seemed alight.

The white and brown-patched tom grinned. "I think we should be heading back to our human homes don't you think?"

Plato muttered 'yes' and followed Tumble out of the den leaving Pouncival and Admetus behind. The cream and brown bi-coloured tom gulped, he wasn't sure about heading to his human owner's home, for the reason? He shared it with Jemima. Ever since getting together with her, he then was adopted by her human owner and had stay there ever since, it was also the owner that had given him his new collar. Though since that fateful night about a month ago, Pouncival and Jemima didn't share any room in that house whatsoever, let alone talk.

"Dad?" Pouncival asked like an innocent kitten.

Admetus sighed as he picked his head up and looked at his youngest son. "What is it, Pounce?"

Pouncival twiddled his thumbs trying to think of a reply. "Well…I'm not sure I can face her."

"Come on now," Admetus sighed. "It's been a month now, surely she's had enough time on her own to think about you and where to go from here."

"I don't know," Pouncival admitted sadly with his head drooping. "If only I hadn't gone with Tumble on his stupid scheme, this wouldn't have happened!"

The father placed his paw on his son's shoulder and gave him a smile. "I know how you feel…there is no denying that what you and your brothers was stupid, but I'm sure you can find a way to win her heart again by just doing some small talk, may take ages but in the end, but she'll forgive you. She knows that Tumblebrutus was the one who put you into this anyway."

Pouncival's green eyes stared intently at his dad, but then after thinking about his father's words, a small smile tugged at his lips. "Well…I can only try."

"I know you can do it," Admetus smiled as he patted his son on the back as he left the den, deep down though however, Admetus wasn't so sure about his son's chances with Jemima. Admetus' own mate had run off with another tom when Tumble and Pounce were born and left poor Admetus to raise his three sons himself. Some members of the tribe even suggested that their family line was jinxed when it came to love.

"Ok dad," Pounce replied as he left the den turning round to look at him. "Wish me luck!" And with that, the young tom was away. Off to find his ex-queenfriend and try and make things work.

**XXX**

Pouncival left the Junkyard and was heading along the pavement that was leading up to the street where his human home was located. He knew that he'd better get home soon and that not only would the streets would be busy with humans heading out to work and he didn't want to get caught up in the rush hour madness, but that a large grey cloud had appeared overhead and it would soon be raining (typical British weather!) He then began a sprint along the street, it would only take him about five minutes to get there if he just ran, but as he was running along, he noticed a figure up ahead, and it was another cat.

As he got closer, his heart began racing and he found himself in a cold sweat when he saw whom it was. Jemima. She was also walking towards, which Pounce, assumed was back to their human home, and it seemed like she wasn't aware of him close behind. Within a second, all that confidence that Admetus had placed in Pouncival suddenly vanished and now he couldn't find the courage just to simply face her. He began to slow down and tried to stay back some feet away from the rusty black queen so she wouldn't know of his presence.

The queen stopped and Pounce stopped in turn. Nothing happened for a moment, but then slowly, Jemima turned round to see who it was. As soon as she saw who it was, which Pouncival felt like she would tell him to go away, she simply stared blandly at him.

The cream and brown tom though despite feeling fearful of her, couldn't help but find her beautiful. Everlasting cat she was gorgeous in his eyes. This queen that had been his best friend since kittenhood had grown into a fine young adult queen though was still the shortest in the tribe though was now just an inch or two shorter than Pouncival. And to think that the feline before him was his own queenfriend sometime ago seemed now almost hard to imagine, why did he have to lose such a beauty like her to his littermate's schemes?

In that moment however, an discomfited silence hung over them as they simply stared at one another, her chocolate brown eyes missing the warmth and happiness that Pounce always cherished, and that wasn't helping him find the words to say anything.

"Um…hi?" Pouncival offered gingerly trying to raise a smile on his face.

"Hey," Jemima replied dully. Her facial expression wasn't one of disgust or anger, but more of a bland nature that made it hard for Pounce to assume what she might be thinking off. Nonetheless, this was the first set of words they had exchanged to each other since the break up.

Pouncival drew in a shaky breath, trying to keep his composure and not ruin the moment. "Um, I was just heading home. Yeah…Mind if I join you?" Behind his back, he had his fingers cross hoping she'd accept him.

Jemima didn't say anything, but then shrugged her shoulders. "Alright then."

A huge weight seemed to lift itself off his shoulders and Pouncival muttered a small thank you to the heavens under his breath before joining the short queen by her side. However, even as they walked down the street together, neither of them spoke any words or even looked at each other. Pouncival then remembered Admetus' advice of small talk to make them not think of their break up.

Pouncival cleared his throat. "So, um…how things been with you then?"

Interestingly, the rusty black queen looked up to him. "...Well, there is some news with my mother."

"Demeter?" Pouncival asked, interested now in the conversation.

Jemima scratched her ear with a rather uneasy expression. "Well, I'm not sure if I'm wanting to say it to the tribe just yet."

"No, no, no it's ok," Pouncival replied keenly. "I won't tell anyone, just between you and me."

Jemima stopped walking and looked around before confessing to Pounce, who had now stopped walking in turn. "Well…we're not sure but…Mum thinks she might be pregnant."

Suddenly a large grin was slapped on Pouncival's face as he beamed at Jemima. "Really? That's amazing! Does anyone else know? Does even Munkustrap know?"

"No," Jemima replied, now with a small smile on her face, the first he had seen one since that fateful night. "Mum is going to check with Jennyanydots to make sure she is right…this is just between me and mum…and you."

He didn't know why, but suddenly Pouncival felt rather honored at that thought. Maybe she was perhaps respecting him again? He could only hope.

Suddenly they felt the first few drops of rain starting to pour and they knew that it would get heavier soon. "Quickly, down this alleyway, a shortcut through there!" Pouncival said and suddenly grabbed Jemima's hand and pulled her into the alleyway. Jemima didn't know why, but she suddenly found herself blush and her stomach started tying itself in knots. Surely she couldn't be fallen for him again so soon?

The two of them hurried into the alleyway and quickly took shelter under a rubbish bin that had fallen on an angle on its side and made a shelter for them to hide under until the rain passed or eased off at least. Once they were under, Jemima began to groom herself and Pouncival could only watch his angel, or yes, he was still that much in love with her, watch her spruce herself up.

Suddenly they both heard a rattle and shuffling of the black bin bags nearby. Pouncival quickly stood up and looked around trying to find any sign of life. There was only silence for a period, then came a laugh, than another, and finally a whole chorus of laughs followed. Jemima found herself huddled behind Pounce as she tried scanning around from where the sound was coming from. Then the two of them looked up and saw that one by one, were many untidy and vile looking toms looking down on them. The all looked like that they hadn't groomed each other in ages with their fur sticking out in all places. However they hadn't noticed the tom behind them.

"Hi," said the voice in uneasy yet cheerful manner as Pounce and Jemima found themselves scuttling out of their shelter in fright until they were right in the middle of the alleyway, in the middle of about twenty toms looking down on them with evil smiles.

"Well look what we 'ave 'ere fellas," said a large brown and orange tom standing up, one that Pouncival assumed was the leader. "It's a little date we 'ave . And they're in our alley…think we should give 'em a helpin' 'and, eh fellas?"

Slowly and surely, the many toms jumped down from their vantage points and walked slowly towards them, both Jemima and Pouncival were now back-to-back, not knowing what they were going to do.

Then with a snap of that tom's fingers, all hell broke loose. The many cats suddenly lunged forward and separated both of them, Pouncival was soon getting kicked to the floor and only could see Jemima screaming as she was dragged away by five toms, even trying her best to get herself free being no good as they were too strong for her.

Pouncival suddenly found the strength to fight back and soon was taken some down to the floor. He wasn't a skilled fighter like Munkustrap, but for what he was, he was certainly trying all he could to save Jemima and himself. The rain began to pour down and Pouncival quickly found himself getting scratch marks across his body and blood began to drip into the newly formed puddles. It was only after fighting off a large messy calico tom that Pouncival could turn his gaze back to Jemima and was horrified at what he saw. Despite the rain getting thicker by the minute, he saw Jemima being forced to bend over by two toms holder her by her arms and the leader tom was behind her and was placing his paws on her rear.

Jemima tried all she could to escape, but fear was written across her. "Let me go!" She cried.

"Shut it!" Said one of the cats holding her down.

"Make me!" Jemima glared up at the tom.

The tom then grinned. "Very well." And he suddenly struck her in the face. Jemima's left eye began to swell and a small trickle of blood followed. She was so horrified she couldn't even find herself to sob.

Pouncival had been so horrified at the scene before him that he didn't notice one cat right behind suddenly striking a blow to the patch tom's head and making him fall sideways to the ground while landing in a puddle.

The gang of toms all laughed at him menacingly as Jemima began to shed tears in the rain, she had never been so terrified in her life. "Pounce…help me…"

"'Ave a look at this, lads!" Called out the leader from behind Jemima. "It looks like the young lad can't fight to save his life!"

"Go to hell," Pouncival hissed while lying in the puddle, whilst he was greeted by the sound of laughter.

"He couldn't help his queenfriend's life!" Cried a voice from behind Pounce.

"Not…my queenfriend," Pouncival growled.

"Oh," said the leader, a terrible idea forming in his mind. "Then I guess you wouldn't mind…" He took a hold of Jemima, slamming her face into the ground.

"You see…" he said as he looked back at Pouncival, "here's what we're goin' to do. First we'll 'ave some fun with your little queen."

Pouncival's heartbeat began to increase.

"And then we're going to kill _you_." The patched tom felt fury in him like he'd never felt before.

"Then, she's going to stay with us to please us for our needs."

Pounce slowly got up, his eyes full of fire.

"But don't worry, she'll have plenty of breaks inbetween." He looked at his tribe. "We have needs after all!"

The tribe members all whistled and cackled at that remarked.

Suddenly Pouncival, fuelled by rage, lunged forward and attacked the leader and the other two holding Jemima down. The little queen fought back and tried to help Pouncival. By now both cats bodies were covered in scratches, though more on Pouncival's body. It wasn't until Pouncival knocked the sick leader to ground and held Jemima by her shoulders.

"Listen to me you must get out off here!" Pouncival explained frantically.

"But what about you?" Jemima replied looking back at the tribe coming towards them.

"I'll take care of them."

"But you'll get killed!"

"Never mind that, just get out of here…go…run!"

Jemima took one last look at the bloody and battered tom before her and with a tearful look, she ran off down the corridor. Almost a cue for the tribe to attack Pouncival, then suddenly he lost his confidence, he felt like a kitten once more. He turned to run but was quickly captured by the tribe.

They beat him senseless to the ground, but Pouncival then gave a kick to several of the tomcats legs and broke free from their grasps and bolted for his life following Jemima. But as he ran down the alleyway, a tom that had been knocked to the ground give Pouncival a deep cut with his claws by his chest.

Though he kept on running, the pain made him scream and he held his bleeding chest, not daring to look back at those hellish toms behind him. Everything seemed to go in slow motion, as he got nearer out of this hellhole and into the open street. He glanced down at his wound and saw the blood trickling down his body and leaving a trail of blood behind. He had to get back to Jemima now!

Finally he ran out of there and ran towards his human owner's home and then saw Jemima sitting back up against a wall and looking shell-shocked at her ordeal. Just then, she saw Pouncival racing towards her.

"Pounce!" She screamed and rushed forward and pulled the tom in for a tight hug, not even noticing his gash.

Neither of them spoke as they held each other tightly in the rain until Jemima broke the silence. "It was horrible…T-they…they tried to r-r…" Then she broke down in uncontrollable sobs into her hero's chest.

"It's ok," Pouncival wheezed, the pain stating to affect him. "It's over now. I'm sorry…shouldn't had led us down that alleyway."

Jemima looked up at him and wiped away some of her tears. "it's not your fault, you have nothing to feel s—Pounce? Pouncival!"

She felt his grip on her loosen as he unexpectedly fell backwards landing on the pavement.

"POUNCE!" Jemima cried holding him in her arms.

"Jemima?" Pouncival uttered, his eyes flickering. The pain was getting worse. "I sorry that I…never told…you." His words getting heavier as he spoke. Then everything went to black.

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**...Well...that's dark. What will happen to poor Pouncival? Review if you want find out!**


	3. The Dream

**Here we go, another update! Anyway, I've been busy of late for trying various job interviews and I've had to give this little updates now and again but in that time, here's the finished article! So in the last chapter, it was dark and this one...well, it starts of dark again. But anyway, this and the next few chapters will be a bit lighthearted before it get's darker later on...**

**Anyway, its time to catch up with the Jellicles once more!**

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**Chapter 3**

**The Dream**

Pouncival opened his eyes and saw that he lying in the middle of the Junkyard at night. Oddly, he looked around and saw nobody here; there wasn't even a pin drop of a sound. Surely there had to be someone here at night. It was then he noticed that there was something different about the yard, all the dens that he knew were all trashed and that to his shock, he noticed several blood marks all over the place.

"Guys?" Pouncival called out, but no one replied. Now he was starting to shake in fear.

He stood up and started walking along trying to find any of the Jellicles. "Tumble? Dad? Plato? Anyone?"

Still silence, by now the bi-coloured tom was starting to feel more scared at the silence. "Come on guys this isn't funny…anyone…Electra? Munkustrap? Jemima…"

He stopped dead in his tracks; he remembered how he saved his and Jemima's lives from that ambush in that alleyway from those toms. The whole thing was nothing but a blur, a very dreadful blur. Though all he could remember however was lying there on that pavement in the rain in her arms. Pounce prayed hoping that she would've brought him back to the Junkyard and that he'd be nursed back to health. Unusually though, he looked down at his body and noticed that all the wounds he'd suffered where not there, as if that attack hadn't happened at all.

"Hang what's going on?" he muttered to himself checking himself out.

Then he heard a laugh, a low, cruel, menacing laugh.

Pouncival's blood ran cold, he with the rest of the tribe all knew that laugh, but he didn't want to think who it really was. "Please stop it…this is not funny!"

The laugh got louder, and this time, it was coming from behind him. He spun round and looking up on one of the piles in the yard, his heart nearly stopped in horror. It wasn't a pile of junk, when he squinted his eyes, he gasped when he saw it was a pile of _bodies. _Bodies that all in fact were the Jellicle tribe…dead.

All his friends and family…dead all covered in all of their own blood. He didn't know what to do and fell to his knees began to have tears fall down his face. It was then however when he looked up on top of the pile of bodies that he saw the one responsible. The laughter was coming from a large scarlet tom that looked frightening and one that Pouncival knew all too well.

Macavity.

He stopped laughing and stared down at the young tom. Pouncival always knew that Munkustrap was always there to protect the tribe when he was a tom-kit, but now the silver tabby was within that pile of bodies and that Pounce was all on his own. He was now the last of the Jellicles and there was no one out there to help him.

Pouncival waited for the villainous tom to attack him and send him to his death with the others…he didn't. Instead the two stared at each other, Macavity's dark eyes sending chills down Pouncival's spine. Then Macavity stepped to the side and to Pouncival's surprise, there was another cat that appeared behind him, though due to his eyes now welling up with tears, he couldn't make out whom it was. Then the two slowly left and heading of down the Junkyard pile, laughing at the destruction they had caused.

Pouncival tried crying out to them shouting curse words at them, but it was useless, the tribe was dead and all he could do was sob in grief while knelt down with his head in his paws.

"It's not over," said a voice in front of him, one that he'd never heard before.

Pouncival slowly looked up coming face to face with a brown tabby tom with his arm outstretched for him.

"Come with me," said the mysterious tom, his expression being a serious one, and then suddenly, it all went back to black.

**XXX**

A faint voice was heard in the darkness, but became clearer quickly as Pouncival slowly opened his eyes.

"Come on Pouncival, can you hear me?" said a female voice, one that Pouncival knew very well who it was, Jennyanydots.

His eyes opened further and then he saw where he was. He was in Jennyanydots' den and he was lying on a makeshift bed made up of old pillows that would've been found in the yard. When the young tom's eyes faced towards the motherly nurse cat, an expression of relief washed over her face.

"Oh thank Everlasting cat you're ok!" She sighed happily as she dabbed a wet cloth over some of his wounds. "I didn't think you'd make it."

Pouncival looked down at his body and saw various cuts either small or large, but he in particularly saw a large gash wound by his chest. It was that wound that could've quite easily killed him, thankfully though this time; it wasn't bleeding furiously like before.

"What…what happened?" Pouncival asked, still unsure about everything that had happened since then.

The Gumbie cat looked away biting her tongue and shuddering at the memory. "Oh heavens, what a truly horrible thing to happen to the two of you. All of us here were staying in our dens due to the rain, then suddenly Jemima came in with her arm round your waist, you were in a terrible state with blood everywhere…"

She turned to look at the patched tom before continuing. "She told us what happened…oh heavens…I don't know what to say. I've never seen Jemima look so frightened in my life."

Pouncival tried sitting up, but pain suddenly brought him back down again. Jenny quickly rushed over to his side. "Careful now. You've only just woken up."

Pouncival then thought back to his dream as Jennyanydots went over to a small basin and dip the damp cloth in it to make it wet once more. That dream didn't feel like a dream or even a nightmare, it felt real to him. "Um, Jenny?"

"Yes?" She asked as she dipped the cloth into the basin.

The young tom cleared his throat, he didn't know what to say about that dream. "…Um, well…I had this…dream, no, nightmare, that felt real somehow."

The Gumbie cat, now curious, turned round to look at him. "Oh? What was it about?"

Pouncival drew in a shaky breath and rubbed his head in a apprehensive manner. "…It…it was about Macavity…the Junkyard was in ruins, and you were all dead, lying in a pile…and he was standing on top of all of you laughing…"

Jennyanydots' eyes widened and she lightly placed a paw over her mouth. "Good heavens."

"That wasn't all though," Pouncival added. "Macavity had someone else with him…couldn't make it out though who it was…and then there was this brown tabby tom, about ages with you, telling me to come with him…and that was it."

The two of them were silent, as a cold chill seemed to go down Jenny's back. "My word," She uttered in shock. "Surely those horrible toms must've done something to do with it…you don't think, they maybe part of Macavity, right?"

Pouncival shrugged. "Who knows, but who was that brown tom…is there any brown tom that you might know?"

Jennyanydots shook her head. "Don't know any brown tom around here…anyway though, it's just a passing nightmare, let's hope we won't have anything to do with them ever again."

The young tom agreed and began resting once again; it was only then when he remembered about a certain young queen.

"But wait," the patched tom said to Jenny. "Is Jemima alright?"

The Gumbie cat muttered something about forgetting Jemima in their conversation and turned to look at Pounce once more.

"After you went into my den, she has been really worried about you since, and with that large wound on you," She pointed at his large slash wound on his torso before carrying on speaking. "I was fearful that you wouldn't make it. The poor queen has never once smiled since then."

Pouncival felt more worried about Jemima than his own condition. "I must meet her to say—"

"Stop right there," Jenny commanded. "As I said before, you'd just woken up and you are not fit to stand up, let alone go out there."

Just then, they heard a clattering from outside and the door opened revealing Jennyanydots' daughter, Electra. The young tortoiseshell queen came in carrying a bundle of various bandages in her arms and to Pounce's mind, it looked like she'd been working all day with her tried expression.

"Hello mum," Electra greeted as she placed the bandages beside Pouncival, not knowing that the tom had awoken. "It's like a madhouse back there…"

She stopped as she soon noticed that Pouncival was now awake. "Oh! Your alive!" And she ran over and tried to give him a hug, but Jenny pulled her back.

"Careful! His body is not feeling that good!" Jenny explained.

Electra let out a little embarrassed giggle and muttered 'sorry' before looking back at Pounce. "Oh I'm so happy you are ok! Jemima will be _so_ happy over this!"

The Gumbie cat then had an idea. "I'll tell you what, Electra. You go over to where Jemima is along with the rest of the tribe and tell them the good news."

Electra smiled. "Alright mum, I'll do that." And with that said, she raced off out of the den to tell the others.

Just after she left however, Pouncival looked up at Jennyanydots. "Actually, apart from Jemima, how do the others feel?"

"All of us are worried," Jenny replied. "Admetus and your brothers have been worried sick, always banging on my door asking me if they could come in and see you."

Pouncival thought over the images of his dad and brothers trying to get in and ask how he was doing. He could see dad and Plato getting emotional, but Tumblebrutus? The idea of Tumble getting upset like that didn't seem like him, anyway, did his littermate ever care about those close to him?

"Wait…" Pouncival then realised something. "How long have I been in here?"

Jenny muttered something to herself with a nervous expression. "Well…you've been out for two days—"

"T…Two DAYS?" Pouncival gasped.

"The injury did made you lose a lot of blood," Jennyanydots explained, shuddering remembering the bloody and battered tom from before. "It was only once we managed to stop you losing more blood, it was then a waiting game to see if you would wake up…if ever."

Pouncival didn't reply and simply rubbed his head in thought about the whole series of events. "Damn…I don't know what to say."

Jennyanydots placed a wet cloth over Pouncival's large wound, causing there to be a nip for the tom, which he tried to hold back that brief twinge of pain. "One thing is good though and that you are on the way to recovery, and with it just a few days until your birthday, you should be out by then."

The cream and brown bi-coloured tom smiled at her. "…Thanks…that's all I can say."

"Oh don't thank me," Jennyanydots corrected. "Thank Jemima for getting you back."

**XXX**

The Jellicles sat round near the TSE1 all with their thoughts with Pouncival. Most of the adults were talking among themselves while Admetus was trying to comfort a weeping Plato, who had never stop crying since Pouncival had gone into Jennyanydots' den. Even Tumblebrutus felt worried about his littermate, his expression was sour and his eyes were moist but they never blinked as he could only stare at the ground blandly without any idea what to do now.

Elsewhere, Mistoffelees and Victoria were in a deep conversation about something, Etcetera was curled up nearby watching Rum Tum Tugger and Bombalurina chatting about something, they didn't seem that worried like the rest about Pouncival and the little tabby queen felt angered by them. Then again after Tugger shocking everyone by settling down with Bombalurina as his mate, some things do change overtime.

It was only when she saw one queen who seemed to be the saddest of the lot. Jemima. Etcetera felt just sad looking at the rusty black queen, Jemima sat on her own sitting by the large tyre, her head drooped low, no doubt thinking about Pouncival. Seeing no on else beside her, she decided to give her friend some comfort.

The cream and white tabby sat down beside Jemima, in which she didn't respond to Etcetera sitting beside her.

"Hi?" Etcetera voiced softly.

Jemima didn't say anything. She felt too numb to feel anything; she just couldn't stop thinking about Pouncival and that ambush in that alleyway. Etcetera could see her face had tears rolling down her face.

Etcetera's mouth formed a tight line as she looked over to see Munkustrap with Demeter discussing about something, and now and again looked back to Jemima.

"He…he saved me," Jemima suddenly spoke up, her voice quite groggy, as if she was feeling ill.

Etcetera, happy to get a response from her, carried on speaking to her. "Yes, he saved you…he does care for you after all this time."

Jemima slowly craned her head up to face Etcetera; her bruises that she'd received had nearly disappeared thankfully. The white and cream tabby's heart sank just looking at Jemima's sombre expression, oh how she wished just to see her smile again. "It was my fault…I should've done something to help him."

"But you did!" Etcetera pointed out. "You managed to bring him back here to safety, so in a matter of fact when I think about it, you _both_ saved each other's lives." She paused as Jemima sniffed and whipped away some of her tears.

"I just…don't know what to do," Jemima sighed.

"You can still hope," suddenly came the sound of Demeter's voice.

The two younger queens turned to see Demeter sitting beside Jemima with her mate, Munkustrap, following Demeter and sitting alongside them.

Etcetera then couldn't help but noticed of how mother and daughter were so alike. Since Jemima had become a fully-grown queen, she had almost become a spitting image of Demeter (including Demeter's sister Bombalurina), minus the colours of fur.

Demeter then placed a comforting arm around her daughter's back. "It's ok Jemima, Jenny will know what to do with him. Besides, if you still didn't like him, you wouldn't be feeling like this."

Jemima sniffed, her feelings for Pouncival that she had for him when they were together had now started to return. "He's…he is just my best friend…no…I…"

Demeter rubbed her daughter's back in comfort trying to let Jemima's feeling to come out.

"It's all right," Munkustrap said softly at his step daughter. "Everything's going to be ok."

Jemima looked up at the silver tabby with a sad look, though she had only had her mother since the day she was born, she had never know who her real farther was, Demeter saying it was a one night stand long ago when she was younger. Though since Demeter had become Munkustrap's mate, he had filled the void of a farther figure for Jemima and had always been there for her to help her through various situations. Right now though, all she cared about was Pouncival, her heart now racing at just thinking about him. There was no denying that she still held deep feelings for her former tomfriend.

"I…oh, Everlasting cat…I still love him." The rusty black queen then pulled her mother into a tight hug that Demeter accepted and uttered several words of comfort to Jemima.

Munkustrap and Etcetera both watched the tender moment with warm smiles, then the silver tabby stood up when he saw Electra racing over to the Jellicles. Once each member of the tribe saw her, they all focussed on her awaiting what news she might bring for them about Pouncival.

"Any news?" Munkustrap questioned as the other Jellicles asked similar questions to her at once.

The tortoiseshell queen raised her paw for them to be silent. "Yes…I bring news for all of you," Electra replied once they were all quiet. "It's alright…he's awake!"

Several of the Jellicles cheered, others like Tumblebrutus, Admetus and Munkustrap could breath a sigh of relief while Jemima give Demeter another hug and for the first time since Pouncival went into Jennyanydots' den, Jemima smiled.

**XXX**

As soon as Electra had given them the good news, the whole tribe went racing over to Jennyanydots' den, all of them keen to know how Pouncival was doing. It was only when they arrived outside of the den that Jennyanydots heard the sound outside and headed out of the den to meet them.

She didn't want them all to rush in as no doubt that poor Pouncival would've been bombarded questions, she thought of letting in Admetus, Plato and Tumblebrutus in first to meet him, but then she saw Jemima standing nearby Demeter. Though looking relieved she still had an anxious expression on her face.

So knowing about how Jemima felt through this whole time about him, she decided to let Jemima in first to meet him. "Jemima, you can come in first to meet him."

The young queen, though quite surprise at this, nonetheless nodded and casually walked into the den, with several members of the tribe knowing why, with their history together, which would allow Jemima to go in first.

Once the young queen entered the den after being led by Jenny, she came face to face with Pouncival. She stared at the tom's many wounds he'd suffered from those toms and she felt a lump in her throat of how sorry she felt for him. He slowly sat up and gave her a warm smile, it was only then that suddenly Jemima rushed forward and pulled the cream and brown tom into a tight hug.

Jennyanydots was about to split them up knowing the tom's injuries, but knowing then that the two were worried about each other, she back down, not to mention that Pouncival wasn't reacting to any pain from his wounds as she was expecting. Instead, she back into a corner of the den to allow the two some privacy.

"Oh Pounce," Jemima sighed happily after pulling back from him. "I can't tell how happy I am to see your ok."

Pouncival smiled and cupped her cheek with his paw, even though she had some bruising not bad as his own, she still looked radiant in his eyes. "Yeah? Well, Jenny told me that you brought me back to the Junkyard rather than leaving me back there…got to say you helped save my life."

Jemima blushed. "But you saved _me_ from those toms, you are my hero and I don't think either of us would be here right now."

The Gumbie cat sat in her corner and smiled warmly at the tender moment between the two. "They're growing up," She thought contentedly.

The two of them just remained there looking into each other's eyes and in both their hearts saying to them that this was all they needed. Then without them knowing it, the two slowly started leaning forward until—

"Would you look at that!" Tumblebrutus' voice boomed across the den.

Jennyanydots jumped in fright not expecting anyone else to enter the den unless she allowed it. Pouncival and Jemima both pulled away quickly and their faces blushed as red as Bombalurina's fur. They both saw Tumblebrutus standing there in the entrance to the den with a reluctant Admetus and Plato behind him, both of which looked really irritated.

"You ruined the moment!" Plato said in annoyance.

"For goodness sake didn't I tell you not to enter without my permission?" Jennyanydots scolded them, but Tumblebrutus walked forward with a smile on his goofy face towards his littermate.

"Well aren't you a sight for sore eyes," Tumblebrutus said as he sat in-between Jemima and Pounce. "And look at these scars on you, damn you look so badass, even I'm jealous!"

"Let's wait our turn," Admetus ordered his son to come back.

The white and brown bi-coloured tom grinned at his dad. "Come on, he's my brother and your son, surely we're allowed some access?"

Jennyanydots groaned. "Your dad's right, once Jemima's done, you can come in."

Tumblebrutus snorted and then looked back at his brother. "Ah well, hope you get out soon." He paused as he looked back at Jemima. "And once you're done makin' out with him, let's us in next."

And despite Jemima shouting at him as he raced off saying that Pouncival was not her tomfriend, Pouncival didn't really matter what was going on around him. All that matter was things could get back to normal and that he would be out just in time for him and his littermate's special night…their birthday. And a night when he hoped he could perhaps let himself back into Jemima's heart.

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**Aah, lovely eh? Well, the next chapter is a birthday...but what does that brown tabby tom want with Pouncival? Review to find out more and if Pounce and Jemima will get back together again!**


	4. Two Young Lovers

**I'm back again with another update! Also, by the time you read this, I'll be down south in Liverpool for a small holiday so afterwards updates will take a little longer than normal, but I will be trying to write as much as I can out there. I will say for you is that I'm not really that sure about my writing as I've been looking at several CATS fics on the site that are really good and I'm left thinking, 'is my stuff really that good like theirs?' So in reviews, I do need to know about any grammar problems and other various things that could ruin a fic as I really do want to improve as a writer and it's you, the reviewers, that can help me out.**

** But anyway, I'll leave you with this little chapter which our hero, Pouncival, will get the girl quite earlier in the story...but we are only getting started of course...so let's begin...**

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**Chapter 4**

**Two Young Lovers**

A few days later after he had finally awoke from his slumber, Pouncival was now able to come out of Jennyanydots' den and mingle with the Jellicles once more. Along with Jemima, they returned back to their human owner's home, who was more than thankful to see them back after thinking that had gone missing, much to Pouncival's amusement however, their owner was so pleased to see them back that Pouncival's various wounds all over his body went amiss. Thankfully for the young tom, the wounds had started to heal, though that large set of wounds on his torso was still evident.

Since he and Jemima had seen each other again, the two of them no longer were avoiding each other out of their breakup before, but now it was more along the lines of them acting shy among each other. It had all happened when Jemima was allowed into the den first to see Pouncival first and it had been an affectionate moment for them that led to them almost to kiss without them knowing it, only for Tumblebrutus to come in and ruin the moment for them.

Since then, Tumblebrutus had passed the news around the Junkyard saying that the two were getting back together. This has led for the young pair to be asked by the Jellicles on more than once occasion asking them if they were to become a couple again, and seeing which Pouncival had saved Jemima from those horrible toms many thought that he did deserve her. Neither them said yes or no as they were feeling embarrassed about it which nonetheless made the tribe all the more interested by them. Despite all this however, Pouncival was happy just to be well again and enjoying life like before.

It was now only a day until Pouncival and Tumblebrutus' birthday (though with them being born late into the night and with Pouncival being born just after midnight making it technically only Tumblebrutus' birthday, all according to Tumble of course). The two of them had planned for it to be set at Pouncival and Jemima's human home, as they just wanted it to be a small party rather than a large one at the Junkyard. The two of them were relaxing in the far corner of the Junkyard keeping to themselves and grooming one another, though Tumblebrutus was firing a barrage of questions at his ('younger') sibling.

"Are you sure you don't remember anything from passing out?" Tumblebrutus asked, still impressed at his brother's story.

"I'm telling you," Pouncival replied, now sounding bored by repeating the story again. "It all went to black and the next thing I knew I woke up finding myself in Jenny's den."

Tumblebrutus' lips formed a tight line and his expression was that of disappointment. "Really? That's it? I thought you had a vision or something like that when you pass out."

The cream and brown tom chuckled. "Nope, it all happened just like that." Of course, Pouncival was lying. He had that horrible nightmare of Macavity and all the dead Jellilcles, which he no one, other than Jennyanydots, knew about. He didn't want to think that it was a vision of the future as it felt real to him. Another part of him was saying not to keep it in, though he felt completely unsure. His mind was torn and the image of Macavity on that pile of bodies was now etched into his head.

"Well that's pretty much ruined my idea of what would happen," Tumblebrutus replied in annoyance before crossing his arms. "You know…never mind."

Pouncival's thoughts then drifted back to a certain rusty black queen, he did have to admit that with the way they seem to be shy around each other, everyone was expecting them to forget what had happened between them after their breakup and start again. He had now thought about trying to confess to her on his birthday, though he wasn't really sure if she was wanted to form a relationship with him again, like best friends before perhaps, but a romantic relationship was a bit uncertain.

"Thinking about her?" Tumblebrutus piped up, almost reading his mind.

"How'd you know?" Pouncival replied slightly shocked.

Tumblebrutus laughed. "Seems to be the only thing you think about recently." He then placed his arm over Pounce's back. "So then, have you two finally gotten back together?"

Pouncival pulled off a nervous smile and looked away. "Um, well…we haven't—"

"Oh come on!" Tumblebrutus cried placing his paws on his head. "The waiting is killing me! What's going on?"

His littermate scratched his ear trying to think of the words of what to say. "Well, the thing is…I want to tell her on our birthday."

Tumblebrutus' mouth formed an 'Ah' shape, as he soon now knew what Pounce was planning to do. "Must say, it's quite a good old fashion idea of how to confess on a special event."

"But there is just one thing," Pouncival added. "I'm not sure if wants to us to get back together, maybe just as friends."

His other tom groaned and pinched the bridge of his nose. "Oh Bast, you're such a buzz kill, Pouncival. _Everyone_ here can see that she still cares about you with the way she looks at you, you just have to go out there and get her. Actually, if you live in the same human house together, how come you haven't gone in to sweep her off her feet?"

The bi-coloured cream and brown tom stared at his brother. "Don't know…just don't want to ruin anything with her."

Tumblebrutus snorted and shook his head. "Everlasting Cat, you are so stupid, Pounce."

"I'm only trying to make it work…and I'm not listening to any of your stupid ideas that got me and her to break up!" Pouncival snapped, his green eyes narrowing.

Tumblebrutus then raised his paws up in defense. "Alright, I'll admit it, that idea of mine was a bit stupid and it cost you your relationship with Jemima and Plato's one with Victoria."

"...By the way," Pouncival suddenly remembered after hearing their older brother's name. "How is Plato doing now?"

The white and brown tom sighed. "Still in the 'Forever Alone' club...still trying to find his way back into Victoria's heart. Though she was sorry to see him looking so sad seeing him cry on my shoulder over you after you were attacked."

Pouncival then rubbed his chin in thought. "You don't think she's hiding something from everyone?"

Tumblebrutus cocked an eyebrow. "Huh? What'd you mean?"

"Well the thing is," Pouncival began to explain. "Have you noticed she has been, well, a bit more upset lately about something."

His brother thought about. "Hmm, you have a point there…maybe something to do with Plato?"

"Has he done something to her?" Pouncival asked.

Tumblebrutus shrugged his shoulders. "Don't know…I'll tell you what though, you go back and see Jemima while I'll ask Vicky about how she's feeling."

"I'd be careful if I were you," Pouncival chuckled as he began walking away. "She's got Misto by her side and he hates us remember?"

Tumblebrutus winked. "Ah I wouldn't worry about him, he's just some fancy cat who likes to do magic! Couldn't fight to save his life!"

Pouncival waved farewell to him before rushing off. But as he left, the images of that nightmare began to haunt him once more in his mind. What was that dream all about really? He didn't want to know right now, as the only things on his mind to really think about were his birthday and Jemima, though the later seemed more important to him.

**XXX**

It was now the evening of the birthday and Pouncival and Tumblebrutus had invited Admetus, Plato and Jemima for a rather small birthday taking place on the roof of Pouncival's human's garage. The two brothers had gotten their gifts early from each member of the tribe and had their cake, just as they wanted. The day had been a relaxing one for both of them, though Pounce and Tumble couldn't help but feel like something was going on when their three guests would mutter about something.

"I remember when I was your age," Admetus explained to the younger cats as they ate their meal of mice. "That was the time when I first met your mother."

The other cats rolled their eyes and muttered something under their breaths as they carried on eating. They had heard this story, mostly the three brothers, nearly all the time.

As Admetus rambled on about his live with his former mate and boring them to death, Pouncival looked over to Jemima's gaze and the two smiled warmly. Pouncival wanted to tell her how he felt and he should've done it a day ago, as Tumble had said for him to do, but the young tom lost his nerve in fear of rejection. Tonight though, he was hoping to finally let it all out, if he could find a private spot afterwards.

He then glanced over by the street and thanks to where they were sitting; he had a great view of everything in the avenue. It was then he noticed over by the end of the road that he noticed two cats heading down the street. At first Pouncival thought they were simply just strays out and about as either of them had no collar and looked very untidy. But then one of them suddenly seemed familiar to the young tom. There was a large grey haired tom and another tom…a brown tabby…

Pouncival thought for a moment of where he might've seen that brown tabby before. Then the grey haired tom suddenly noticed Pouncival staring at them and alerted the brown coloured tom. The brown tabby then looked up at Pounce and he stood there staring at him for what seemed like half a minute. He didn't know why, but Pounce suddenly had a chill running up his back at the sight of this tom. The two toms on the street below then exchanged a few words with each other then ran for it.

The cream and brown tom didn't know what had happened, but as soon as he began to remember who that tom was, he was suddenly interrupted by Admetus, who had only finished his story. "Oh, I've just remembered, there's something I forgot to pick up from my den. Plato and Jemima can come with me."

"Why can't we come?" Tumblebrutus asked suspiciously.

"It's your birthday of course," Plato replied as he stood up. "Just enjoy yourself, we'll be back soon." And with that, the three cats left; though the two littermates were sure they heard muffled laughter as they left.

Pouncival and Tumblebrutus looked at each other puzzled by this sudden bit of action. "What was that all about?" Pouncival asked curiously.

His brother shrugged his shoulders. "Beats me…anyway though, it's been not bad day for us though, eh?"

Pouncival nodded. "Would've liked it if we had some more with us to celebrate."

"You mean like Victoria?" Tumblebrutus questioned. "Well I tried asking her, but she is saying something about Plato and how she needs him for a certain reason."

Pouncival tried thinking of various ways what his brother meant. "And yet she didn't want to come up here to see him?"

"I'm just as confused as you are," Tumblebrutus agreed. "But she is hiding some—"

"Pounce! Tumble!" Came the voice of Jemima.

The two brothers looked behind them and saw her head poking up from behind the wall that was on the end of the garage.

"Something wrong?" Pouncival asked.

Jemima giggled about something. "Actually, we do need some extra paws to help us out with whatever your dad has."

"All right then," Tumblebrutus replied and the two headed over to Jemima, in which as soon as they got to her, she grabbed hold of Pouncival's paw and led them to not in the direction of the Junkyard, the back garden climbing down onto the rubbish bins.

"Emm…the Junkyard's that way," Pouncival explained, his face now blushing red with her holding his paw.

She didn't say anything up until they rounded a corner of the house and a wall of voices shouting 'SURPRISE' greeted them.

Pouncival and Tumblebrutus looked around in astonishment, as there standing in the garden was all the tribe that had been waiting for them. Pouncival then looked to Jemima, noticing that he was still holding her paw which he casually pulled away blushing being in front of the entire tribe, and saw that Jemima had a cheeky toothy grin on her face.

"I see what you, Plato and dad were up to," Pouncival said dryly and smiled back.

Tumblebrutus was still in a state of shock as the rest of the tribe came over to say various messages of happy birthday to the two of them like they had early that day. As he gave another look at the garden, it seemed like the Jellicles had dragged what seemed half the lights that were normally hung round the junkyard, mostly during the time of the Jellicle ball and would be switched on by Mistoffelees' magic, though with all the decorations they had here, it could've been mistaken for a Ball. "Hang on, I thought it was just suppose to be a small one with us!"

Plato came forward and placed a paw of his younger brother's shoulder. "Yeah that is right, but the thing is, this wasn't mine, Jemima or dad's idea."

The two littermates looked at each other in confusion before both looked up at Plato. "Then who's idea was it then?" Pouncival asked.

Plato laughed and rubbed the back of his head with an embarrassed grin. "It was…"

"Mine!" came a female voice from behind Plato. The brothers looked and see none other than Etcetera appear with that happy go lucky smile. Like the rest of them, she had grown up too and was no longer the little kooky queen that followed Tugger everywhere, now she had grown into a decent looking tabby queen, though her personality and energy seemed to have not changed a day.

"Wait, you came up with _all_ of this?" Tumblebrutus asked still amazed by it all.

"Of course!" Etcetera smiled. "I knew you wanted it just to be a small birthday, but I felt you two should have something a bit better, mostly over what happened to Pouncival. So I decided to make it a surprise party right here."

"So she is the tribe's party planner then?" Tumble muttered under his breath looking over to Etcetera.

Pouncival and Tumblebrutus looked back at their dad who laughed jovially at their expressions. "I know what you wanted, but it seemed like a nice gesture from her, so I couldn't resist, and so everyone decided to join in."

The two brothers didn't bother to respond and only looked around at all the tribe giving them warm smiles. "Ah well then," Pouncival grinned. "Where do we start?"

**XXX**

The whole night went in a blur for everyone as all the Jellicles had a long night of celebrations. Nothing seemed to wrong for everyone there, apart from a brief moment when Rum Tum Tugger and Mistoffelees nearly got into a fight over who was going to eat this large mouse that had been brought along and many getting suspicious at if the food that Mungojerrie and Rumpleteazer had brought along was in fact stolen from their human home at Victoria Grove. Old Deuteronomy sat next to Munkustrap most of the time and even he seemed to be enjoying it, even Gus had managed to make it out here, though was with either Jellylorem, Asparagus Junior and Etcetera keeping him company for most of the time.

All of it seemed to be an unexpected but pleasant evening for Pouncival and was only thankful that his human owner was asleep and was not witnessing the party going on in the garden. Though it might have been a birthday party for him and Tumble, it was though a party for him for saving Jemima and recovering from his wounds. All night he would get praise from all the Jellicles, that after a while, he got fed up with it and only now just wanted a quiet moment…one for a reason.

He was sitting by the fountain with a rambling Skimbleshanks who was telling him a story about a similar fight he had gotten into during his youth up in Scotland and was telling the younger tom about how related it was to his, though Pounce wasn't really focusing on him. Instead his eyes focused on Jemima, who was with Etcetera, Rumpleteazer and Electra talking about something. He wanted to confess to her in private during later in the evening, but with the tribe all here, he was not sure if he could do it right now.

He then shook his head, what was he thinking? All he had to do was take her to a secluded spot and take it from there as it was now or never. "Sorry Skimble, I just remembered something," Pouncival interrupted the ginger tom during his story.

"Ya mean ye dinae want to hear the end of the story?" Skimbleshanks asked in dismay.

"I do want to hear it," Pouncival replied in a positive manner as he started heading over to Jemima. "You can tell me another time!"

And he went off with Skimbleshanks muttering something angrily about young cats these days. The young cream and brown tom drew in a deep breath as he approached Jemima and the other young queens with her. Rumpleteazer noticed him coming to them and said something to the group in which they giggled in response. As he soon walked up to them, he cleared his throat and looked at Jemima. He almost forgot his words with his stomach tying in knots again.

"Um, Jemima?" He asked in a rambling manner.

The brown eye queen smiled at him. "Yes?"

Pouncival glanced over by a small-secluded area round the corner of the house that was near a flowerbed spot and saw it as a perfect place for a private moment. "Could you come with me? I…have something to tell you, in private."

Jemima blushed and the other queens gave her knowing looks that they seem to know what Pouncival was planning. Their relationship's story wasn't really the best-kept secret in the junkyard it seemed. "Of course, lead the way," She replied as Pouncival lead her over to the secluded area he had his eye on.

As they left, Pouncival looked back at the remaining queens and Rumpleteazer was giving him thumbs up for good luck. Pouncival nodded at her and then looked back in front of him. Soon they went round the corner of the building and were out of anyone's eye. It was all up to him now; it was time to let his feelings be known to her.

"Jemima…" He began softly, his paws holding her paws gently. "All I can say is that…I'm happy to have you as my friend." He didn't want to rush in too quickly, but to his surprise, Jemima looked quite disappointed by him.

"Just a friend?" She asked.

Pouncival felt his plans going down fire and he felt that he was about to ruin the moment. "No, well…I just want to say I'm sorry about what happened a month ago…Tumble got me into it and I'll do anything just to—"

He was suddenly caught off guard as Jemima pulled him into a hug. "No, it's my fault, Admetus told me how sad you were a couple of nights ago about…you know, our breakup. I shouldn't have shut you out like that as you were simply roped into whatever it was you doing."

The cream and brown tom looked at her as she pulled back with his arms around her waist and her own round his neck. "I still love you," she continued, and those words that made Pouncival's heart soar for the first time in ages. "But I don't want you to get into any of those stupid things that may affect our relationship."

Pouncival nodded and smiled. "Ok…I promise, I won't follow any of my brother's stupid schemes if that's what you want, besides, he can be a idiot himself sometimes and he does't know it."

The both laughed before looking deeply into each other's eyes. "I love you Jemima…so damn much," Pouncival said to her gently before pulling her closer to him. "Let's start again."

"I second that," Jemima agreed and the two gave each other a tender kiss. In that kiss alone, it wiped away that last month within a few seconds and the two pulled back with their foreheads touching each other's. "You are my hero for saving me from those toms," she said with a slight gush in her voice.

The two went in for another kiss, but this time with more passion. Pouncival lifted her up by her waist and she wrapped her legs round his waist as continued to clumsily kiss each other. Even thought she was light, the weight of her nonetheless led to Pouncival suddenly to loose his balance and the young lovers fell into the lobelias nearby with Jemima falling on top of him. They didn't mind though as neither of them wanted the moment to be ruined by anything. Finally they slowly pulled away and looked in each other's eyes.

Oh how Pouncival loved those dark brown eyes of Jemima's as to him, they seemed more beautiful than any jewel or diamond he'd known. They didn't say anything for a few moments afterwards and enjoyed the moment.

"I don't know what the toms in this tribe see in Bomba," Pouncival uttered to her jokingly.

"And what do all the queens see in Tugger?" Jemima added sweetly before giving him an affectionate nuzzle.

Pouncival slowly sat up still holding his lover before looking back seeing the Jellicles still enjoying the party and all of which seemly oblivious to what had happened with Pounce and Jemima. He then gave her a wink. "I think we should carry on with this indoors don't you think, hmm?"

Jemima caught on pretty easily as they both stood up and quickly groomed each other before Jemima replied. "It is getting a bit chilly out here, would anyone else notice we've gone?"

The bi-coloured tom laughed. "With Tumblebrutus liking to be at the centre of attention, don't think anyone will notice us to be fair." He then gave her a quick kiss before taking her paw and walking her round the corner and passing the party.

True to Pouncival's word, Tumblebrutus had an audience making up of Etcetera, Rumpleteazer, Mungojerrie, Electra, Plato and Victoria, which the latter two both were sitting close and it looked liked they had a reconciliation much to Pounce's delight, thought he still wanted to know what Victoria's secret was. The small audience was watching Tumblebrutus and Admetus having a singsong on top of one of the plant pots with their arms behind each other's back singing terribly. Though they had a keen audience who were enjoying the moment, many of the other Jellicles were standing away from the performance and the singing sounded more like claws being scratched on a blackboard to their ears.

Jemima and Pouncival tried their best to hold their laughter in before Pouncival dragged his lover with him. "I'll tell you one thing he's good at," Pounce explained. "He's good at distractions!"

"I can see what you mean about him liking to be at the centre of attention!" Jemima replied giggling.

The two of them laughed once more and quickly entered the cat flap to prolong their night of love indoors. It was the last time that night that any of the tribe saw the two until dawn, but for the two young lovers, it was time to start again.

* * *

**Yay, they are back together...but we've only just started and there is many trials and tribulations for them to come! So I need you all to review like you do and tell me if my writing is good as I said before. So now, it's onwards to Liverpool, see you around until then!**


	5. An Unexpected Meeting

**No, I haven't dropped the story just yet as I'm back with an update! Now over the last few days now, I've been busy with me trying to get a job and now I feel as I'm getting somewhere at last and maybe by the next time I update, I should be working at last! Also, my sister is very close to be giving birth to her twin girls within this week or the next at the time of writing, so maybe when I update, I'll be an uncle (yay!) **

**Now with the story, this is sort of the real start of the story as the other chapters were just to introduce the characters, so now, it'll be getting darker with each chapter, hehe. So I'll shut up then and let you read the story!**

* * *

**Chapter 5**

**An Unexpected Meeting **

The sun rose over London, and Pouncival rose with it. He squinted his eyes against the bright light of sun's rays orb that went through the kitchen window. He laid there in its radiance looking up towards the window, basking in the light for a while. It was such a beautiful day, the perfect follow up for last night's event.

Pouncival rolled over to look at his side in the basket. Jemima had fallen asleep, cuddled up next to him. Their tails were wrapped together and her paw was stretched across his chest. He smiled at his calico queen; she was so beautiful in the morning light. Her rusty black and red fur seemed to gleam in the morning sunshine.

Pouncival then felt a grumble in his stomach. He hadn't eaten at all evening and that dish of milk lying in the corner of the kitchen, where they slept, hardly counted as a meal. He carefully shifted Jemima's paw off his chest and slowly sat up. His body was stiff and aching; falling asleep on the hard kitchen tiles before moving into the basket later on wasn't helping his now healing injuries.

He cracked his back as he stood, then looked at his love. She was bewitching as she lay in the basket. He smiled softly as the musical tones of her quiet snores resonated in his ears. How did he ever get so lucky? He bent down and placed a small kiss on the sleeping queen's cheek.

"I will always be there for you Jemima. I promise," he whispered.

"I know you will."

The bi-coloured tom was startled as the calico queen turned over and stared at him with sleepy eyes. "You call that a kiss?" she smiled, grabbing his blue collar and pulling him in for another kiss, shocked to see her quite forceful like that which wasn't like her.

His lips were warm and rough, but she didn't care. She loved her tom and nothing was going to ruin them during this moment. Their lips parted as Jemima curled back up again into the basket, quickly succumbing to slumber once more. Like any night cats like the Jellicles, her body insisted she needed her beauty sleep.

Once she had fallen asleep, Pouncival walked out off the kitchen through the cat flap and out into the garden to take a gulp of morning air.

He was not prepared for the scene that awaited him in the back garden.

It looked like Macavity had been unleashed in the backyard. Various flowers and plants had all been pulled out and spread across the garden, several flowerpots were ruined, earth had been scattered across the once beautiful green lawn (his human owner being a keen gardener) but most notably of all, all the tribe, Jellicles cats of all shapes and sizes lay all over the yard passed out.

"_Oh, I'm so NOT clearing this mess up myself!"_ Pouncival thought angrily as he looked at the disaster his eyes beheld him; he hated to know what his human's owner reaction would be if he saw this. Pouncival then slowly stepped over Alonzo, who was sleeping nearby the cat flap door fast asleep. "No chance for him to be on guard duty today," Pounce joked to himself.

Over by a large falling plant pot, Munkustrap slept peacefully with Demeter in his arms, in which the bi-coloured tom couldn't help but smile at the sweet scene with them looking so content even when they slept. "Even protecting your mate while asleep…impressive."

He then heard snoring from within the planted flower field, Pouncival walked over and looked into the flowers and saw Mistoffelees, Etcetera, Gus, Asparagus Jr. and Jellylorum all fast asleep and lying in various positions. Mistoffelees had what seemed like some of the fairy lights wrapped round his body, must've been a prank or something like that Pouncival guessed. Etcetera and Jellylorum had their heads resting against Asparagus' chest while Gus was curled up underneath a large flower, snoring louder than the rest, how any of them could've slept peacefully with that noise was something of a mystery to the cream and brown tom, though his thoughts were interrupted by the sound of his growling stomach. He then remembered he hadn't anything to eat for the rest of the night after heading indoors with Jemima for their…private business.

Passing by Coricopat and Tantomile, both curled up with each other while sleeping, Pouncival then saw a large pile of uneaten rats that looked perfect for him to have his breakfast. As he walked over to the large pile, he saw Plato lying back against the pile of rats with an arm round Victoria, both sleeping peacefully. Seemed like things had been worked out between them. He then saw his dad beside the fountain with half his body hanging over the edge, looking like he was being sick, but then he noticed that he was asleep, whatever had happened with his dad last night he didn't want to know.

He then grabbed a rat and starting to eat it rather quickly, eventually it was finished and he went in to grab another rat. As he grabbed one rat, he felt something odd; he felt something warm inside the pile. Curious, Pouncival began to dig deeper, finally revealing a white and brown bi-coloured tom snoring like a chainsaw with bundles of rats in his arms.

"Tumble?" Pouncival he asked in surprise seeing his brother like this. How Tumblebrutus had found his way into the pile of rats and why he was sleeping in there in the first place, Pounce hadn't a clue and so shaking his head in amusement, he decided to head over into a small hole in the garage wall which he could pick up a scent that other Jellicles were within the building and decided to see how they were getting on.

On the way there, he saw Old Deuteronomy curled up sleeping peacefully on top of a rubbish bin and much to Pouncival's surprise, he also saw Bustopher Jones sleeping nearby. Pouncival guessed that Bustopher must've arrived later on in the evening once he and Jemima escaped to go indoors and both of the older tom cats seemed to be the only ones who looked to be the only ones who had not done anything stupid compared to the others last night to the younger tom's thoughts.

Beside the hole in the wall, Pouncival then saw Skimbleshanks and Jennyanydots curled up together with Skimble drooling in his sleep. Trying to hold back some laughs, Pouncival entered the garage and thankfully for him, it hadn't been damaged compared to the garden. Cassandra was nestled peacefully sleeping inside a metal bucket and nearby was Mungojerrie who had passed out with his head hanging over a tool box that had the lid hanging precariously overhead and that any moment, the lid would come down to decapitate the calico tom. Rumpleteazer was curled up on top of one the paint tins and her arms and legs were left hanging over the edge of the tin.

Seeming to think that was all, he carefully and quietly pulled the sleeping Mungojerrie back from the toolbox and laid him on his back, he himself was drooling in his sleep like several others. Just then, Pouncival heard a giggle coming from somewhere in the garage. He looked around and noticed that the sound was coming from a small cupboard at the corner of the garage. Carefully navigating thought the various pieces of junk on the garage floor, he made his way over to the cupboard.

He opened the small closet door and quickly had to dodge two older cats tumbling from inside. It was Rum Tum Tugger and Bombalurina. Tugger got up first, rubbing his head from the fall.

"Oww…my head…" he moaned.

Bombalurina rolled beside him, and smiled up at seeing Pouncival. "Morning, Pouncie, where'd you go off to last night?"

"Just needed some space," Pouncival replied suspiciously, mainly at why those two where in that closet.

"I bet that's not all you got," Tugger said with a grin as he helped Bomba up from the ground, "We saw you and Jemima go inside the house and never saw you after that."

"That's all you saw?" asked the younger tom.

"Yep," replied the scarlet queen crossing her arms. "Wait…did something happen between you two?"

Pouncival looked away sheepishly. "Well..."

"Well, well, well!" said Tugger rubbing his paws together. "Something _did_ happen between you two!"

Bomba gave a devilish grin. "Congratulations Pouncival, my niece finally got her tom back."

Tugger then presented Pouncival with a pat on the back. "You finally got laid! I'm so proud of you!"

Bombalurina glared slightly at her mate's use of words.

"Ha, Ha," mocked Pouncival. "Is that sarcasm I hear from a tom that had to give up his old ways just to settle down?"

The Maine coon snorted and crossed his arms in annoyance. "Have you ever expected anything less from us?"

"Point taken," said Pounce.

"So tell us Pounce," began Rum Tum Tugger. "How is she in the basket?"

"Well actually we-"

"Oh, I bet she's a screamer!" gloated Tugger

"We didn't-"

"Hang on, she can't be a screamer or we would have heard it from outside," Tugger then thought about it.

"Guys we didn't-"

"How do you know that?" asked Tugger while placing his paws on his hips.

"We didn't-"

Tugger rolled his eyes. "Doesn't matter. All I'm saying is that if it was me and her, I'd make her scream by getting some whips an—Mmmph!"

"That's my niece you're talking about!" Bomba snapped angrily clasping her paw over her mate's mouth. They were both surprised to see someone like her actually deploring sexual activities like that. Then again little Jemima was her sister's daughter and was always looking out for her.

"Anyway," Bomba said, looking back at Pouncival and removing her paw from Rum Tum Tugger's mouth, who now looked rather shameful at what he'd just said. "I suspect you are going to take things slowly, right?"

"Of course," Pouncival nodded. "I want to make her happy and really make it work this time round."

The scarlet queen smiled. "Well, I maybe known as a flirty eye catching queen, but Jemima is family to me and I only want the best for her, we'll you give her that?"

Pouncival rubbed the back of head awkwardly, mainly of how Bombalurina words were quite serious. "Well, I suppose."

Tugger then placed his arm around his mate's slim waist and eying her up. "And another thing with you, babe, I always thought you were secretly a family queen."

Bombalurina retuned her mate's simper with a nasty grin.

"That's what you think," she said with her tail tickling Tugger's chin and the Main coon stared into his lover's eyes, and their infamous flirting began.

"Eager aren't we? What, last night in the closet wasn't enough for you?"

"W-wait," stuttered the younger tom. "What were you doing in the closet?"

They ignored him.

"You know how I get in the morning, Tugger," purred Bombalurina, nuzzling her tom.

"Guys, what _were_ you doing in the closet?" asked Pouncival again, his tone growing more worried.

"Maybe we need to do something about that, Bomba," cooed the handsome tom as he slowly started to kiss his lover.

"GUYS!" snapped the bi-coloured tom. "What did you do in the closet!?"

"Oh, you know," purred Bombalurina glancing her green eyes over at him briefly. "Just seven minutes of heaven."

"More like seven _hours_ of heaven." Tugger laughed.

Pouncival cringed as a look of disgust washed over his face. "Great, how will my human discover when he see's whatever you've been doing in there?"

"Hey!" said Tugger defensively. "We didn't make THAT big of a mess. And lighten up, it was a party after all, besides, you did it in your basket with Jemima—"

"WE DIDN'T DO IT!" shouted Pouncival.

There was a moment of silence.

"Oh..." Tugger finally said with a hint of disappointment in his voice.

"Yeah," replied Pouncival crossing his arms. "Anyway, since you two are awake, you can help me clean this place up and wake the others."

"Hey, look at the time!" said Bombalurina, checking an invisible watch on her wrist. "We gotta go!" she said nudging Tugger towards the hole in the wall.

"Oh yeah…" said Tugger, getting the idea. "We're busy…making out!" he said, lifting up the red queen bridal style and carrying her out of the garage.

"See you later, Pouncival!" Bombalurina said between the kisses Tugger was bombarding her with as they left, seeing them this loving to each other was probably just to distract the younger tom at the scene.

Pouncival rolled his eyes as the two scrambled out the hole and into the garden; it was hard to imagine for Pouncival that Bombalurina and Jemima were related and that even after settling down, Tugger and Bomba never seemed to have changed one bit. So after shaking his head, he then looked at the closet, and with cautious in his heart, he slowly walked inside. Pounce was not expecting to see what he found.

"Electra?" he asked.

The shy tortoiseshell queen was hidden in the back of the closet behind various pieces of equipment. Her eyes were wide and bloodshot. A look of total terror stuck to her face. Her entire body was shaking.

"What were you…" he started, stopping as a sudden, horrible realization hit him. "They didn't know you were in the closet, did they?"

Electra quickly shook her head. "Th-th-th-the things th-th-they did…" she muttered, dry tears rolling down her blood cracked green eyes. "I-I-I've never seen…" she mumbled before finally passing out, landing face first on the ground with a thud.

"Oh why?" Pouncival sighed in pity just thinking what she must've gotten herself into last night.

"Oi, Pounce!" Cried a familiar cockney voice from behind the cream and brown tom. Turning round, he saw Mungojerrie waking up and rubbing his head. The cat-burgling tom then saw poor Electra lying facedown. "Hey what 'appened ter 'er, 'eard somethin' just as I was wakenin' up."

Pouncival bit his bottom lip, not having the courage to say what had happened. "You don't wanna know."

"Really?" Mungojerrie replied raising an eyebrow. "What do yew—"

"Seriously, you don't"

Mungo then shrugged his shoulders and then went over to wake up Rumpleteazer. Pouncival then looked down at the unfortunate queen and decided to take her back to Jennyanydots, the poor young queen deserved some comfort after experiencing the horrors she'd suffered last night.

Pouncival then exited through the hole in the wall while carrying Electra bridal style and saw everyone starting to wake up; his gaze was mostly on Skimble and Jennyanydots just as were starting to wake up too.

They both said a merry good morning to Pouncival, but as soon as the two older cats saw Electra in the cream and brown tom's arms, they gasped. "Electra!" Skimbleshanks cried as he rushed forward and grabbed his daughter before looking back at Pouncival. "What happened tae her?" He asked franticly.

The young tom didn't really want to say anything, how was he suppose to say it to her parents about what Electra must've witnessed last night. "Just…no…less said the better."

"I really want to know," Jennyanydots suddenly spoke up as she came rushing forward to see her daughter. "What happened?"

Pouncival didn't reply for a moment but then with a shudder, he looked around to make sure no one was watching or listening, then he whispered into the Gumbie cat's ear. Once Pouncival was done speaking, Jennyanydots' eyes shot open wide in horror as she had a paw over her forehead. "Oh my poor baby!" She cried and Skimble and Pounce thought she was going to faint in shock, though thankfully she didn't and instead leaned in closer to Electra and pulled her forward into her own arms and now was trying to comfort her.

Pouncival took this as his cue to go and without saying anything; he nodded at them to wish them farewell and left them to deal with the tortoiseshell queen on their own. As he left the little family, his gaze was soon on his brothers and farther by the pile of rats. Tumblebrutus groaned as he rose up out of the pile shaking some of the rats off his body and taking a look at his surroundings before seeing Pouncival coming up towards him.

"Oh, hello brother!" Tumblebrutus grinned before giving Pouncival a heavy pat on the back that nearly knocked the bi-coloured tom forward. "Take it you were getting it on with—"

"For your information we did not do it!" Pouncival snapped, causing Plato to wake up. "First Tugger, now you? Give me a break."

"Even now…you didn't go for it?" Tumblebrutus asked in bewilderment. "Everlasting cat, Pounce. If I were you I'd go for it!"

"I'm not wanting to ruin this relationship," Pouncival explained. "I'm wanting to take this slowly."

His littermate shook his head and rubbed his forehead. "Ah well then, your loss I guess."

Plato, still with his arm around a sleeping Victoria, kissed her forehead and got up looking over at his brothers. "Ah, good morning you two, and Pouncival did you settle things with Jemima?"

Pouncival smiled and nodded and Plato smiled back in turn. "Congratulations, you two take it slow now, ok?"

The cream and brown tom let out a small laugh. "Finally _someone_ who speaks sense!"

"Huh?" Plato asked, "What did I s—"

"Just shut up," Tumblebrutus muttered. "By the way, you look fairly happy this morning, it is about Vicky by any chance?"

"Not just that," Plato grinned while rubbing his paws together gleefully like a kitten. "Remember how she was quite upset over the last few days?"

Pounce and Tumble looked at one another then back at Plato. "Kind of," Pouncival replied. "What is it then?"

"Mood swings," Plato replied with a twinkle in his eyes and was greeted with looks of confusion on their faces. The older brother glanced round before telling them. "The things is…Victoria is—"

"Pregnant," Victoria suddenly piped up; the three brothers looked over to her and saw her getting up and walking to the small circle.

By this point, the news quickly sank in for the two littermates and they quickly gave the couple many words of congratulations, they noted that a bump wasn't there yet and that it must have been in early stages for her. "Really? Oh Everlasting cat I'm going to be an uncle!" Tumblebrutus exclaimed happily at the end of one of his words of congratulations.

"You mean _we_?" Pouncival offered dryly.

"Oh yeah, that as well…Oh! And not to forget an _aunt_ soon," Tumble added giving his littermate a wink.

"Get out of it," Pounce replied sarcastically, in which the others laughed.

"But yeah," Plato said as he wrapped an arm round his mate's waist. "She told me last night that she was willing to forgive for what happened…you know, that night."

Tumblebrutus looked away guilty, Plato was not going to let him forget that night anytime soon.

"Forgive you for what?" Pouncival asked curious by the whole story.

Plato smiled towards Victoria. "That I would be a responsible farther for her, no, _our_ kittens."

"How will Victoria's human owners will react when they find out she is carrying kittens?" Pouncival asked, knowing that Victoria's owners always would chase Plato away and had on several times nearly been captured by the cat catcher, thinking him as a stray.

Plato and Victoria both had nervous looks on their faces as Plato's grip round his mate's waist tightened. "Not sure," Plato responded. "But I'm sure we'll think of something."

They were quiet for a brief moment before Tumblebrutus spoke up.

"Does dad know about it yet?" Tumble asked.

"Not yet," Plato replied.

"And not even Mistoffelees knows," Victoria added.

Pouncival and Tumblebrutus could only imagine the image if the magical cat did find out about his little sister being pregnant. "Oh I can see it all now," Tumblebrutus said while rubbing his chin. "He'll be like 'how dare you Plato for fertilizing my sister!'"

The three brothers all laughed at the little joke, mainly though at Tumble's spot on impression of Misto, though Victoria glared at the three of them. But then Victoria remembered something. "Speaking of which, did any on you notice why Munkustrap was looking very happy last night?"

Pouncival noticed that she wasn't looking at him but his two brothers and guessed it must've been something that had happened when he'd gone indoors for the rest of the night.

"Now you mention it," Tumblebrutus pondered. "He was raving about something, maybe with it being a party, he was loosing up for once?"

The white queen shook her head, and then suddenly Plato remembered about the piece of news last night. "Ah yeah," Plato spoke up for Victoria. "Just have to tell you, that the tribe's going to be getting a little bigger in months to come, not just thanks to Victoria."

The younger brothers stared at the pair trying to make sense of what they were meaning.

"What he means," Victoria explained. "Munkustrap is going to be a dad, Demeter has kittens of her own about to arrive."

Pouncival's eyes widened as he remembered Jemima's bit of news a few days ago about Demeter. Seemed that Jemima and Demeter were right all along and it was a nice thought to Pouncival that finally Jemima would have siblings of her own.

Tumblebrutus didn't exactly welcome the news like with Plato and Victoria, but instead starting thinking the information over. "First you two, now Demeter is pregnant…what is this, Kitten fever? And how didn't I hear about this last night?"

Plato and Victoria laughed at Tumble's response, and then the older white and brown-patched tom began to explain the details last night. "The news came quite late from Demeter actually," Plato enlightened. "You and dad were singing very badly last night and you found yourself within the pile of rats and dad found himself sleeping by the fountain, by that point nearly all your audience had fallen asleep."

Tumble looked embarrassed, though Pouncival was trying to picture the scene in his head. He had missed a rare downfall moment of his loudmouth littermate.

"Then Demeter told Munkustrap the good news," Victoria added. "I've never seen him look that happy, he was like a born again kitten." The white queen then paused as she looked around for any sign of Jemima. "Pouncival, where is Jemima?"

Pouncival cast a glance back at the house before looking back at the gathered circle. "She's indoors sleeping, Jemima did tell me she thought that Demeter was expecting, now I guess we can tell her the good news."

They didn't respond. They weren't even looking at him. In fact as Pounce looked around, all the waken cats were looking in the same direction as Plato, Victoria and Tumble. Some like Munkustrap looked ready to defend while others stayed back.

The cream and brown tom turned round and soon saw what all the Jellicles were looking at. There standing at the bottom of the garden were two unknown toms, a brown tabby and a longhaired grey one. But Pouncival soon realized that he had seen these two before, especially the brown tabby, from last night.

For a while no one said anything until Old Deuteronomy spoke up, still on top of the rubbish bin with Bustopher Jones. "Who are you?" He said calmly, though with a hint of suspicion in his voice.

The two toms eyed Demeter and first muttered something to each other before looking back towards the Jellicle leader. "We mean no harm to any of you," The brown tabby replied.

"We're looking for a tom," The long grey haired tom explained. "A young bi-coloured tom."

All eyes soon found their way towards Pouncival and Tumblebrutus, both of which had no idea what to do. "Um…us, you mean?" Pouncival asked warily.

The two unknown toms walked up to the brothers and strangely, they seemed oblivious to the lukewarm reception they were getting from the tribe that they were keeping a distance from them or that at any moment that they would be struck down by one of the Jellicles.

As soon as they were near the two littermates, they stopped and eyed both of them up and down and whispered something to each other, but now they seemed to have their gaze on Pouncival more than Tumblebrutus. Then suddenly, they bowed their heads towards him, much to confusion of all there.

"We apologize for our unexpected arrival and for not introduction ourselves," The brown tom said. "My name is Adamin, and this here is my partner Nicolae."

As soon as they names were heard, one calico tom's eyes opened wide in shock and beside him, a calico queen felt her throat tighten up. "Adamin, Nicolae? What they doin' 'ere?" Rumpleteazer asked in a whispered manner to her partner in crime as they hid behind one of the plant pots.

Mungojerrie looked rather fearful, for these two toms, Adamin and Nicolae, had been with him since he was growing up but since joining the Jellicle tribe thanks to Rumpleteazer, he'd hardly seen them since. And the last time they'd met, they had a major argument, which Mungojerrie left them afterwards in disgrace.

"I 'ave no idea," Mungojerrie uttered. "But whatever i' is, I 'ave bad feelin' abaaaht something...and whatever i' is, it's somethin' ter do wiv Pounce an' Tumble."

"What 'ave they done?" Rumpleteazer asked, not knowing much about the history of her partner's relationship with those two unknown toms other than what Mungo had told her what they were like, older brother figures. But before Mungojerrie could say anything, Nicolae started speaking.

"It's a cream and brown tom we're looking for…" The longhaired grey tom described as his gaze soon fell on Pouncival, who in turn looked very uncomfortable with everyone now looking at him.

"And your name?" The brown tabby asked Pouncival.

"…P-Pouncival," the cream and brown tom stuttered in reply, feeling more scared by the minute.

"Has my son done something wrong?" Suddenly came the voice of an aggravated Admetus as he staggered forward, still feeling sleepy having just woken up, towards the two toms.

"No there is nothing that that your _son_ has done," Adamin replied with oddly some weight on the word 'son', like he knew something than Admetus didn't. "We want to talk with Pouncival over a certain matter of ours."

Of course, Adamin and Nicolae had secrets of their own that they didn't want to revel here and were wanting to get away from the garden quickly.

"Why can't you just say it here? Munkustrap spoke up behind them.

"It's a **private** matter," Nicolae answered back at the tribe protector. "I promise you we won't be long with him and he'll be back with you within five or ten minutes."

Munkustrap still felt skeptical as he felt a suspicious ambiance from the two toms.

The brown tabby then offered Pouncival his paw, and for the young tom, his blood ran cold as this tom was exactly the one in the dream he had a few nights ago and was performing the same act. "Come with me," He said in calm manner.

Everyone waited for a response from Pouncival as he just stood there looking very uncertain at everyone wondering what he should do. No one looked like they believed the unknown toms, and Pouncival was thinking along the same lines. But then did think that maybe the two toms were generally telling the truth and that it was just nothing really. So with him drawing out a long sigh, he made up his mind. "…Alright…I'll come." And with that, he went with the two toms, with him in the centre, Nicolae on his left side and with Adamin on the right with his arm draped over his back as they led him away from the garden and out off sight.

The remaining Jellicles were all silent and many thoughts went through their heads about what might happen to the young bi-coloured tom. Mungojerrie and Rumpleteazer felt a cold sweat on their furs and knew that Adamin and Nicolae had tracked down where they were and would only be a matter of time until the older toms would meet _them_. For the rest of the tribe however, little did anyone known however, this was only just the start of the story.

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**Oooh, the plot thickens! Please review if you want to see what happens next and please give me some constructed criticism please when writing these chapters please. So until then, see you in a bit!**


	6. A Claim

**When you live with a bunch of people who are all getting ready for the birth of twins, it can be annoying. Nonetheless, my sister's twins aren't here yet, though as I write this, they say (this time round) they'll be born later this week. Despite all this, I've had time to get the story updated! Once again i won't say much, but this chapter was originally going to be part of the last chapter, but with me being a lazy guy, I decided to cut the chapter in two, so you could say this is chapter 5.5 I guess.**

**In this chapter however, we'll get to see Macavity! Now a little word of warning, this is my first time writing Macavity so if i'm wrong with his personality...try not and notice, haha! so then, let's see what is going on with the Jellicles!**

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**Chapter 6**

**A Claim **

Jemima's golden slumbers were rudely awaken by the shouting of her human owner looking through the kitchen window and spouting out curse words a mile a second over that his garden which had been ruined by vandals. It was all so sudden for Jemima that she didn't have time to wonder what was going on and quickly escaped the house through the cat flap in case her human in a fit of rage decided to throw her through the window.

It was only once she was outside that she could only she what all the fuss was about. The garden was in a horrendous state and though her human was probably dead set on the idea of it being delinquent children that had done it during the night, Jemima dreaded the thought that it was the Jellicles that might have done it, unintentionally of course. What kind of party had it been? it surely must've been a wild one in her mind. Also, she began to wonder where Pouncival was. She looked around thinking that the tom would be somewhere up the garden, maybe trying to find some rats for an early breakfast, but she couldn't catch sight of her tomfriend.

She then picked up a fresh scent that she knew was that of the Jellicles and knew that they would've just left and would've gone back to the junkyard or their respected human homes. It was just then that she heard a sound coming from round the front of the house that sounded like voices. Questioning what the sound was, she headed along a small pathway to the front of the house. The sound came again and this time, it sounded like someone was being sick and once she finally ended out in the street (while squinting her eyes due to the bright sunlight) she was stunned at the sight before her.

With his arm pressed up against a red brick wall and with Rumpleteazer trying to comfort him, Mungojerrie had thrown up and looked dreadful, not to mention shaking like a leaf. Jemima had never seen the calico tom look this bad, and didn't say anything for a moment up until Rumpleteazer noticed Jemima watching them.

"Oh, wotcherthere, Jemima." Rumpleteazer greeted quickly as she rubbed her partner in crime's back gently.

"What's happened to him? And where is everyone?" Jemima asked, keen to know what had happened.

Mungojerrie coughed as he slowly turned his head round to face the young rusty black queen. "Long story…what 'appened was what we've all just woken up an' then yaaahr 'uman comes ter da window an' we make a run fer it."

"Then Jerrie decides ter frow up an' we are left behind," Rumpleteazer added giving him a pat on the back as he turned away facing the ground looking like he was about to throw up again.

"What did you have last night?" Jemima inquired placing her paws on her hips. She knew that on special occasions, Mungojerrie could eat and drink happily almost anything and wouldn't feel any side effects from it, though here he was feeling sick.

"Too much ter eat," Rumpleteazer replied for her partner, though in fact, she was lying. It wasn't anything to do with food; it was nerves that Mungo had suffered earlier that day. The reason? Two certain toms had arrived wanting something to do with Pouncival and the partners in crime hadn't spoken to these certain toms ever since Mungojerrie became one with the tribe.

Despite the rusty black queen looking somewhat doubtful about Teazer's claim, her thoughts then went back to her tomfriend and his whereabouts. "Where is Pouncival?" she asked them.

Mungojerrie and Rumpleteazer looked at each other with worried expressions. Neither of them knew what to say to her, so they didn't say anything. It wasn't until Mungojerrie slowly turned round to face Jemima.

"There was deese two toms who wan'ed 'im fer somethin' an' they just left about a few minutes ago," Mungojerrie explained.

Jemima felt a wave of uncertainty take hold of her as her thoughts of those horrible toms in that alley came back to haunt her. "H-how long did they say they'd be?" She uttered.

"A few minutes," Mungojerrie replied softly as he took a few deep breaths trying to feel better. "He should be ok though."

Once more, it was a lie, both he and Rumpleteazer would have told Jemima and the tribe everything about Adamin and Nicolae and how them, especially Adamin, were quite fearsome fighters for Macavity and that during one day trying out a new magic attack, that Adamin had nearly seriously harmed Mungo by accident when he was young. It had led for them to have an icy relationship and Mungojerrie had been hopeful he'd never see them again. However, with the fact that the two older toms had just literally come out of nowhere and the fact that they hadn't seem then in ages, they felt fearful just even talking about them.

Just then, Rumpleteazer had an idea to try and take their minds of the situation. "If yew don't mind, we can go back ter da Junkyard together an' who knows, Pounce maybe back by now. After all, I could do wiv some 'elp ter get Mungo back ter da 'yard."

A small smile crept onto Jemima's face as she felt a small sense of optimism that everything was going to be ok. So with a quick nod, Jemima held Mungojerrie by his left side while Rumpleteazer held him by his other as together, they helped the unfortunate tom down the street.

While Jemima looked hopefully, both Mungojerrie and Rumpleteazer looked at each other with uncertain glances, they could only pray to the Everlasting Cat that Pouncival was going to be fine and that Adamin and Nicolae were going to be true to their word.

**XXX**

Though it had only been about five minutes since they started walking, Pouncival felt as it had gone on for ages. Beside him, Adamin and Nicolae were silent as they led the young tom down many terraced streets, almost as they were trying to make him to get lost on purpose. Pouncival didn't dare ask once where they were going incase they'd suddenly beat him to a pulp.

For a moment he felt fine as they weren't going down the street that Pounce had that horrific encounter with those toms. Just the mere thought of it still made him shudder in fear, though another thought that lingered on his mind was that these two toms were from that gang and were leading him into a trap.

His mind jumped back and forth thinking of what he was going to do with them, either follow them, run away or even try and fight them. He had just come an idea when suddenly Nicolae spoke to him. "Under the car," he ordered pointing over towards a blue car parked beside a pavement. Though still wary, Pouncival nonetheless followed them under the car, which his mind at the same time was still trying to answer questions of what was going on.

Once they were all under the car, with Adamin and Nicolae seated with each other and Pouncival sitting away from them, neither said anything for a while and the bi-coloured tom felt the urge to make a dash from them and escape. Then it was Adamin who broke the silence. "I hope you didn't mind our sudden appearance and leading you away like this," He said calmly, his voice sounding generally comforting, something that eased some of Pounce's fears.

"Why am I here then? Pouncival asked, eager to know what this was all about.

Nicolae stepped forward. "It's a long story, but I'll try and keep the details simple. The thing is, Adamin and me come from a large group, maybe a force you could say, of cats that have various skills such as fighting, magic, or stealing. Adamin here is one of the many magical cats in our group."

Pouncival's green eyes widened, apart from Mistoffelees, he hadn't know any cat that had magic skills like the tuxedo tom and was surprised to actually see another magical cat in the flesh. _"So much for being a one off,"_ Pounce thought to himself dryly. Then an idea came to his head. "Hang on…is this invite by any chance, and who do you work for?"

The two elder toms cast nervous glances at each other; they didn't want to talk about their connections to Macavity. "It's complicated to say I'm afraid," Adamin answered. "We cannot tell you who we work for as it is classified, and you aren't being invited into our ranks as such."

The bi-coloured tom was stumped as that response. "What do you mean then?"

The longhaired grey tom spoke up for his partner. "It's like this. As I said before, we come from a force of cats with various skills, my late father, Augustus, had this skill of future visions of what was going to happen to us. Though they were often quite muddled and cryptic and sometimes took years for them to actually happen, he was right all the time with them."

Not surprisingly, Pouncival was doubtful about the idea of someone seeing visions of the future and these prophecies stories, though the fact that Nicolae had said that this 'Augustus' was correct with all of them did impress him slightly. "So what has this got to do with me then?"

Nicolae cleared his throat and Pouncival was sure that Nicolae looked a bit tense of whatever he had to say. "Before my father died, he had one last vision…this vision was of the heir of M…The Hidden Paw." He stuttered at the end of that sentence.

Much like every cat in the city and perhaps the whole of the country, Pouncival knew only too well whom Nicolae was referring too. "Go on…" Pouncival insisted, his eyes narrowing in thought.

"Well according to my father's description that this heir was a cream and brown bi-coloured tom," Nicolae said, his dad's last words replaying in his head. "This tom, his _son_, will overthrow him it is said."

"And after looking around, we believe it to be _you_," Adamin finished for his friend.

Pouncival was utterly speechless; he was the son of Macavity? Why had no one else in the tribe said this to him, and did that mean that his littermate Tumblebrutus was also Macavity's son? He didn't say anything for what felt like an age, and then Pouncival snorted and clutched his sides laughing.

Adamin and Nicolae looked at each other wondering what the young tom found so funny about it. Nicolae then spoke to the laughing tom. "Are you not that bit concerned about him being your—"

"Macavity? My DAD!? HAHA!" Pouncival laughed some more until he was even wiping some tears from his eyes. "That's a great joke!"

"We're not joking!" Adamin replied with alarm. "We believe you to be the son of Macavity."

Pouncival's laughter started to die down before he spoke again. "Alright listen here, I don't know you and you don't know me, but my dad is Admetus, I have two brothers, the eldest being Plato and my littermate is Tumblebrutus as you saw back in the garden. My dad was used for breeding and various humans would adopt us once we were a few weeks old. That's who we are."

Nicolae looked now a little embarrassed that they might have gotten the wrong tom. Adamin on the other hand was not giving up just yet. "Do you know who your mother was then?"

"Well…no. She left us just after me and Tumblebrutus were born," Pouncival muttered uncomfortably, it was a subject he didn't like to talk about.

The brown tabby rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "I see…as far as we were concerned, Macavity came by your Junkyard looking for something during your last Jellicle Ball and it sort of made us think there could be a connection."

Pouncival suddenly felt suspicious. "What a minute, how'd you know about that?"

Adamin cursed under his breath at nearly blowing their cover at saying too much. Macavity had said the Junkyard was the place to look for the apparent heir of his.

"One of our guys heard about it," Nicolae lied, stepping in for his partner. "Said there was quite a ruckus when he came by."

Though still unsure about something that these two toms were hiding, he shrugged his shoulders accepting it. "Well…I don't know about it, I haven't got any resemblance to him, I look more like my dad and brothers if you ask me."

Adamin and Nicolae were silent. "Excuse us," Adamin said before he and Nicolae turned their backs on Pouncival and were huddled round whispering to each other. "Do you believe what he says?"

"I do now," Nicolae replied. "We believe him, but he sure as hell doesn't believe us."

"…Yes, maybe the tom is right, we better let him go," Adamin nodded. "I feel like an idiot now."

The two toms drew back from their circle before looking back at Pouncival with humiliated expressions. "We're sorry for this," Nicolae said. "You can leave now."

Pouncival nodded and slowly walked away. "Thanks for nothing," he said to them, before sprinting away back to the Junkyard, in which Pouncival muttered crossly to himself what a waste of time that was before giggling at their ridiculous claim.

Under the car, Adamin and Nicolae didn't say anything and knew they had failed Macavity in their search. "We'll have to report him about our findings," Adamin said sadly.

"He's not going to be happy," Nicolae pointed out. "Then again there are thousands of bi-coloured toms in this city that look like Pouncival…we could be looking in the wrong place."

Without exchanging any more words, the two walked away feeling dejected and disappointed in their searching. "Hang on a minute, why did Macavity want with his heir so much?" Nicolae asked.

Adamin vaguely remembered what the rumor was going on within the ranks. "From what I hear, he won't start this operation until he has his heir by his side, an operation that is said to take over the cat world of London, but he wants some tribe known as the Jellicles to be wiped out."

"Why is that and what is this whole operation called?"

Adamin glanced over at his friend. "Don't know what it is with the Jellicles he has with them nor what he is calling this whole operation. It's all being kept well hidden whatever he has in mind."

They walked in silence for sometime until Nicolae stopped in his tracks. "Erm, you could just magic us back to base you know."

Adamin chuckled as he playfully slapped his forehead. "Yeah, alright then, just worried about seeing Macavity that's all." And so with a click of his fingers, the two toms disappeared in a puff of smoke.

**XXX**

It wasn't long afterwards that Adamin and Nicolae arrived at the large building know to all humans as St Pancras Railway Station, though to a certain few cats in the city, this was the lair of the Mystery Cat. The two of them had to quickly dodge various humans walking by on the pavement before making their way into a hole in the wall, the small entrance that led deep into the catacombs of the station. It was in there that hundreds of cats would all mingling among each other either talking or training with their various skills with others.

Even after all this time being with them, it still made Adamin feel amazed of how much Macavity had done for them. This riff raft of many toms and queens of all shapes, sizes and skills living together under the station, some were without a common tongue but bounded together for the promises that Macavity had offered them.

The brown and grey toms walked along many small corridors, now and again coming across several cats all relaxing, as they made their way along to come face to face with their leader. They couldn't tell if they were going deeper into the station or were heading towards the roof of the building as a strange ambience gripped them, no doubt this was another magic skill of Macavity's doing. Nonetheless, they finally arrived outside a mucky green door (which was just a plank of broken wood that was guarding a small hole in the wall) being guarded by two calico toms, both of which stared at them with unpleasant expressions.

"We're here to see him," Adamin explained to them.

The calico guards didn't react at first, and then one of them slowly opened the green door to let them enter. Adamin and Nicolae quickly entered and gave the two guards brief words of 'thanks' as they entered. Once they were in, they found themselves with the entire room being engulfed in pitch black. As their eyes adjusted to the darkness, the room was just a large open concrete room with various crates stacked up on each other.

It was then when they looked up on one of the crates that they saw a large tom sitting on top with his back to them. Though it was dark, they could just see fur sticking out in many places and they both swore that there was an odd red glow on the tips of his fur. They only knew too well this was the cat they'd been looking for.

"Sir," Nicolae said as he and Adamin got down on one knee each bowing to Macavity, his voice echoed across the room.

"You may rise you two," Macavity's deep voice replied back. Calming, but still a terrifying voice for some.

The two toms stood up, as Macavity slowly turned round to face him, it was hard for them to see his face, though his yellow eyes, like those of a snake, glowed in the darkness and didn't feel like eyes of those from a normal cat. "What news do you bring?"

Nicolae stepped back, he always wasn't that confident when he came to face Macavity. Seeing this, Adamin took his place. "Master, we bring news of the search of your heir."

"…Yes?" Macavity said, looking down at them from the top of the crates.

"We found a tom that matched the description of that of Augustus' words and where you said you allegedly said that tom would be," Adamin explained. "However, he said that he wasn't your son and I just can—"

He was suddenly cut off when Macavity struck a magic bolt of lightning down at them, in which the two narrowly avoided. "You **idiots**!" Macavity hissed. "It's not the heir I'm wanting, it's the one that is suppose to _overthrow_ me, and the tom you saw in question could be _that_ one…didn't you even THINK of that!?"

Nicolae and Adamin now looked fearful now. "But sir!" Adamin called back. "He didn't look like he could be a fighter!"

"That's not the point!" Macavity shouted, striking another bolt of lightning at them, this time hitting Adamin in the legs causing him to hit the hard ground. "The point I'm saying is that he may not look the part, but in a few years could become a strong tom, if he takes me down, then all our dreams end in ruin."

Nicolae, who had ran to the side of the injured Adamin, looked up at Macavity. "Please master, give us another chance. What do you want us to do?"

Just then, the Mystery cat jumped down a few crates until he was on the crate on ground level, his gaze never leaving them once. "I'm tired of waiting, our forces are becoming impatient and restless for action, but I'm not wanting to risk such a major initiative for us. I want you to go back the Jellicle tribe and find that tom, and if your lucky, my heir."

"Yes…it'll be done," Adamin uttered as he was helped to stand up by Nicolae. "

"And if you find that tom," Macavity then added. "…Kill him."

**XXX**

At the same time as Adamin and Nicolae's encounter with Macavity was taking place, Pouncival was nearing the Junkyard and about to reunite with the rest of the tribe. In the Junkyard, nearly the entire tribe were scattered in various parts in the clearing, all of them waiting for the return of Pouncival.

Jemima sat with Demeter, Munkustrap and Old Deuteronomy by the large tire, the little rusty black queen being asked questions by them about her and Pouncival getting back together, something that they were happy for, but it didn't ease of Jemima's fears for her tomfriend's current state.

"Now don't worry now," Munkustrap cooed his stepdaughter, rubbing her back softly. "If he doesn't come back soon, I'll lead a scout party to find him. After all, he's a good tom and if anything, he might be on his way back now."

Old Deuteronomy smiled as the scene, though he shared a sense of uncertainty with Jemima. Who were those two toms and what did they want with Pouncival of all cats? He certainly hoped it wasn't some toms from that alleyway that Pouncival and Jemima had barely gotten out off. The tribe leader looked down at Demeter, it almost felt somehow similar to what Demeter had gone through with Macavity. Speaking of which, where was Macavity? He hadn't been seen since the last Jellicle Ball when he attacked the tribe, and from then onwards, apart from some rumours from other stray cats, he had pretty much disappeared of the face of the Earth.

"I agree with Munkustrap," Demeter said while placing a warm arm round her daughter's back. "Pouncival should be ok."

"I hope your right, Mum," Jemima replied as Munkustrap and Demeter embraced her and gave her some much needed comfort.

In the middle of all this, Tumblebrutus was seated next to Etcetera by the TSE1 with the cream tabby queen saying about various things. Etcetera was speaking a mile a minute about how she had gotten over Rum Tum Tugger at last and other various bits of information, Tumblebrutus' mind wasn't on the conversation Etcetera was giving him, his mind was on the whereabouts of his littermate.

"You ok?" Etcetera asked, now seeing how worried Tumblebrutus looked.

"No," sighed Tumble, his usual fast-talking and witty personality not evident on him. "It's been over ten minutes now, and I'm starting to fear the worse."

This stunned the cream tabby out of character behavior from him, as normally he didn't seem that bothered whatever Pouncival would get up too. "Why are you worried about him like this?"

Tumblebrutus sighed and rubbed his forehead. "The thing is…I've know Pouncival all my life, yes there's Plato and dad, but Pouncival is one who I've been with on many misadventures with. It's just that, things have changed, Pouncival now has Jemima and we're kind of drifting apart. Plato has Victoria and he is going to start a family with her as you've heard by now, and the only company I have now is dad."

The white and brown tom felt a lump in his throat as he looked up at the clear blue-sky day in London. "I want him to be happy with Jemima, but I don't want to think the worse for him."

Suddenly he felt his paw be held gently by Etcetera, his head quickly glanced down and noticed Etcetera's expression being tender and had a mature nature about it that Tumblebrutus had never seen in her before.

"Your not alone," Etcetera explained warmly. "My best friend Electra is hanging about with Mistoffelees a lot helping him with his magic and we don't hang out like we use to. No matter though, you have me as a friend."

Tumblebrutus had an amused expression now. "Thanks Cettie. Just keep by my side for the time being."

Etcetera nodded, but as she was about to reply, they heard a commotion from Skimbleshanks and Asparagus Jr on one part of the Junkyard, quickly others joined until Tumblebrutus and Etcetera could see what was all the fuss.

There they could see Pouncival enter the clearing and several cats being Jemima, Plato, Admetus and Tumblebrutus raced up to him, all surprised to see Pouncival looking amused over something. One thing was for certain; it looked like the two mysterious toms had kept to their word about not harming him.

"Pounce!" Jemima exclaimed as she pulled him into a hug. "I was so worried about you."

"I was beginning to think you'd been catnapped," Plato added.

"It was none of that," Pouncival chuckled as he pulled back from Jemima, still with his arms around her slim waist.

"What's so funny then?" Tumblebrutus asked. "Don't tell me _you_ gave them a sneak attack?"

Pouncival laughed. "You don't know what nonsense I heard from them."

The other Jellicles were all watching from their various vantage points and listening keenly.

"They said…" Pouncival began, but stopped to try and hold back some of his laughter. "It's too funny…they said that according to some strange vision…I am the son of _Macavity_!"

Tumblebrutus hit the ground laughing "What a bunch of nutters!"

Plato and Jemima tried to hold their laughter, but both were failing to do so. Plato couldn't believe what he'd just heard, he's wished he'd made that up and joined in with the laughter. The other Jellicles had similar responses, some like the younger cats were laughing at it while the older cats couldn't keep a straight face. Amidst all this laughter and jollity however, three cats weren't joining in.

Mungojerrie and Rumpleteazer both knew about the visions of the late Augustus, and they knew that despite the ludicrous nature of the claim, it was a claim they believed and without letting anyone knowing, they silently left to their shared den. However, the one that felt a sense of terror grip her was Demeter. She knew that it was correct that Pouncival wasn't anyway related to Macavity, though she knew Macavity better than anyone that he would only ever return to the Junkyard for one reason (Apart from terrorizing a Jellicle Ball)…finding his offspring.

She didn't know what might happen to everyone in the tribe, but one thing was certain to her…Macavity was coming back to haunt them, and this time, there would be death.

* * *

**Ooh, some drama! And yes, there will be deaths in this story, though I won't say who it'll be. So please review if you want more, it's going to get a little bit insane soon...!**


	7. Seek And Destroy

**I'm back, and it's an update! I'm sorry for the long wait, but I've been busy for a different reason...I'm looking after my two nieces, oh yeah, I'm an uncle now! My sister's little bundle of pride and joy, but I won't say their names on here due to personal reasons, but they've been keeping me busy all this time and I'm such the doting uncle for them. **

**Anyway, as I write this note, I'm hopefully getting close to getting a job as a care assistant soon, though maybe when the next update of this story comes round, I'll be able to tell you then. But I'm going to shut up now and let you read this chapter, one that I'm not really happy with as it took me a long time trying to figure out how it was going to pan out but hopefully it should be ok now, so without further ado, begin reading!**

* * *

**Chapter 7**

**Seek And Destroy**

It had been two days since Pouncival had met the two toms named Adamin and Nicolae, both of which had claimed him to be none other than the son of Macavity, a claim that had been laughed into oblivion by Pouncival and the rest of the Jellicle tribe. From that time onwards, life had been all but normal in the tribe and soon all their thoughts were all on the upcoming Jellicle Ball within a few weeks time.

Pouncival was looking forward for taking Jemima as his date for the Ball, though despite this making him feel positive about himself, he still had somewhere deep down in him a lingering doubt about Adamin and Nicolae. What if they were right that he _was_ apparently the son of Macavity? It couldn't be true, his father was Admetus and he had two brothers, Plato and Tumblebrutus. Though everyone in the tribe had said to him that statement was not true and he was just like the rest of the Jellicles, though he still couldn't fully agree on it, mainly due to the fact that Tumblebrutus had gone rubbing it in so much to Pouncival endlessly since then.

In some regards, things weren't back to normal as such. Some had noticed that Mungojerrie and Rumpleteazer weren't hanging out with the tribe like before and instead remained in their den or staying with their human home in Victoria Grove. And with no report with any robberies of such, something was wrong.

Strangely, the same could be said for the tribe protector, Munkustrap. Ever since that day, Demeter had been more distant from him, Jemima and everyone in the Junkyard. When Munkustrap had tried asking his mate what was wrong with her, she'd say it was none of his business and back off, as of a result, their relationship had been somewhat icy. It was now sunset within the Junkyard and Munkustrap was in a conversation with Old Deuteronomy, both seated on the large tire.

"I don't know what I've done wrong," Munkustrap explained to his father about his predicament. "I've tried to act like a good mate and be a father figure for her daughter, am I doing something wrong?"

The wise old tribe leader placed a paw on his son's shoulder. "Munkustrap, you've been an excellent son, a strong protector for the tribe, a caring mate, a loving father figure and wise beyond your years. As far as I can see, there is nothing wrong with you."

"Then why is she distance from me and Jemima?" Munkustrap inquired, still sounding worried.

Old Deuteronomy thought for a moment as his eyes glanced over towards seeing Alonzo running into the Junkyard and briefly stopping to engage into a brief conversation with Cassandra about something. Munkustrap turned round seeing what his father was looking at, which shortly afterwards, Alonzo raced over to the father and son.

"Sir!" Alonzo gasped for air as he bowed to Old Deuteronomy greeting him.

"What is it?" Old Deuteronomy asked as he stood up.

"There…There is…" Alonzo gasped for air as he bent down taking deep breaths. He looked like he had run from one end of London to the other and back again.

"Calm down and catch your breath!" Munkustrap insisted.

The black and white bi-coloured tom's slowly became less frequent until he was finally able to start again speaking. "Sorry about interrupting you like this, but on the way to the Junkyard, I noticed a large group of cats heading our way!"

The two silver toms exchanged looks of concern, the longer Macavity hadn't attack or terrorized them, the more things began to feel tense, and they hoped their worst fears weren't coming true. "How many do think there were?" Munkustrap asked his second-in-command.

"Not sure," Alonzo replied shaking his head. "I'd say it was about thirty to forty of them."

Munkustrap's blood ran cold and his gaze turned towards the large entrance to the Junkyard. "You don't think…those toms that Jemima and Pouncival met are coming this way, right?"

"Impossible," Old Deuteronomy spoke up. "We've never heard from them before, so why would they want to suddenly attack us?"

The tribe leader received no reply from the other two there, but then slowly, the same idea suddenly grew in their heads. Wanting to get Jemima and Pouncival.

"Why would they be after them this badly?" Alonzo asked in baffled manner. "And more to the point, how do they know where we stay?"

"Someone spreading word out on the street about us," Munkustrap uttered quietly. "Maybe they might be spying on us."

"I haven't the slightest idea why," Old Deuteronomy added while rubbing his chin thinking it over. The only idea that the wise old tribe leader had was that those toms were out to get their revenge on Pouncival and Jemima after what happened before, but even that didn't feel right for what really was a one-of encounter that could've happened to anyone.

Alonzo then looked over to Munkustrap, still with his back turned to them, with concern within his blue eyes wondering what they should do. "Should we go out and face them by gathering others or get everyone out of here to safety?" Alonzo asked, his voice with a hint of fear evident.

The silver tabby didn't reply as in his mind, thoughts and various nightmare scenarios danced round in his head.

Old Deuteronomy and Alonzo waited for a response, though for the former, he felt a sense of guilt rather than fear. For he had never really told anyone, not even his two sons, about his little secret about Macavity, and one that he feared was about to unravel sooner rather than later.

Munkustrap soon turned round to face Alonzo. "Alright, gather any strong tom in the Junkyard and meet me at the gate in five minutes."

Alonzo nodded and quickly raced off to find any tom to help them out, for now it was clear as for what Munkustrap wanted to do…fight off the invaders. Little did he knew at that time that the tribe would come across two somewhat familiar faces…

**XXX**

Not far from the Junkyard, a large motley gang of cats, all toms no less, stood within an alleyway all preparing to listen to what the plan of action was. If Munkustrap, Alonzo and Old Deuteronomy knew who it was, they'd be horrified to know that their worst fears were true. It was the gang of toms that Pouncival and Jemima had encountered not so long ago.

"How long are they gonna take?" Shouted one impatient messy looking tom sitting on top of a small pile of rubbish. Quickly others joined in, all of them felt like they had been waiting in this alleyway for about an hour, by that point the sun had only just set and the sky was a glowing dark red.

"Silence you idiots!" Cried out their leader, the brown and orange tom, standing on top of a rubbish bin. Almost on cue, they all fell silent. "I agree that they are wasting our time right now, but they promised us by givin' us an expansion on our territory…and meetin' those two little kittens again, I think you can see the temptation of it, eh?"

Several of them muttered words of agreement and just as the leader was about to add more to his statement, the two toms that had invited them all together suddenly appeared in a cloud of smoke with the help of magic. Adamin and Nicolae. The two aforementioned toms looked up at nodded at the tribe leader.

"Sorry for keeping you waiting Dilaver," Adamin apologised to the tribe leader. "Me and my partner were going over details with our master about meeting you and your tribe."

"Took your bloody time," Dilaver snorted as he crossed his arms. "This better be worth it."

Nicolae smiled. "It'll be the best choice you'll make by joining us in this little endeavour of ours."

Despite this statement, many of the tribe of toms still looked unsatisfied with what he'd said.

"My lads want this to be something really special in order for them to come out here tonight," Dilaver explained.

"It will be," Adamin replied. "Me and Nicolae are heading out to a Junkyard that is home to the Jellicle tribe, the tribe of that young tom and queen that you met that got away. We're after that tom, we want him dead and so do all of you, if you help us kill him, you'll get a whole new area to move in to. Surely that's something worth thinking about."

The rest of the tribe now muttered some positives about the idea, but their leader didn't look so sure. "Indeed it is a tempting offer my good sirs, but we would join you on one condition."

"What's that then?" Nicolae asked.

"If we're moving in to a new territory," Dilaver replied. "We prefer to cleanse the area first, aka, kill _all_ the tribe first."

Adamin and Nicolae glanced at each other with worried looks. Though Pouncival wasn't the son of Macavity as they first thought, in that tribe nonetheless was Macavity's heir, and neither wanted to risk the idea of killing the heir in the process. Though with such a large and rather reluctant force, they felt they'd little choice to look elsewhere in the city.

"Very well then," Adamin agreed. "Do what you must."

"Music to my ears," The brown and orange leader grinned before looking over at his tribe. "Let's go for a walk on the town, shall we?"

The tribe cheered in response as they headed out of the alley to follow Adamin and Nicolae on the way. Even though they had only just managed to get that tribe of toms on their side, Adamin and Nicolae glanced over with worried expressions at one another. They knew that something was going to go wrong, whether it was not killing their chosen target, killing the heir of Macavity, getting caught or even all of the above, they couldn't help but think that neither of them hadn't thought the plan over.

The only way to know was to go for it.

**XXX**

Night had fallen across the city of London, and for many humans, it was the end of another day, little did any of them knew of the drama that was about to take place in a certain Junkyard somewhere in West London. Right near the entrance to the Junkyard where the metal gates, which were closed, though were quite slack and looked easy just to push open. Nearby, a motley gang of toms consisting of Munkustrap, Alonzo (who had gone out of the Junkyard looking for any sign of the tribe of toms), Asparagus Jr., Plato, Admetus, Mungojerrie, Mistoffelees and even Rum Tum Tugger all huddled near the gate all waiting for the so called intruders. Munkustrap and Alonzo had not told the tribe of how many were incoming as they knew the tribe would turn and run a mile, all they said that they needed was an able band of toms to help them out.

By now they had been waiting for a good ten minutes and some doubts had started to creep into the back of their minds if these so-called 'intruders' were even going to turn up and that it had been a mistake on Alonzo's part for mistaking them for what he thought they were.

"I don't like this," Plato said quietly to his father. "What if I die here and my future litter won't have a dad?"

Admetus placed a paw on his eldest son's shoulders. "I wouldn't worry, with all these guys with us, we'll be able to get through this. Think of this as if you're fighting for Victoria and that litter."

Plato's mouth formed a tight line, but nodded. "Hope so, dad."

Meanwhile, Mungojerrie stood by Munkustrap waiting for the toms. "One question," Munkustrap asked the younger calico tom, in which Mungojerrie faced him.

"Yeah?" Mungojerrie asked nervously.

"Might all this have something to do with you?" Munkustrap inquired. "Knowing that you have several connections outside the tribe."

Mungojerrie felt a cold sweat wash over his body as he coughed nervously. "How should I know? Me an' Teazer 'ave done nothin' but remain in da Junkyard. Has ter do somethin' wiv Pounce, right?"

The silver tabby sighed as he turned his stare back at the entrance. "I'm not sure, maybe you're right, maybe you're lying…there's just something not right here."

Also nearby, The Rum Tum Tugger, who had rarely, if ever, done anything useful for the tribe other than become a flirt machine, waited like the others to defend their home. Though he was one of them who had his doubts, as did the tuxedo tom nearby.

"Where are they?" Mistoffelees asked Tugger, who in turn lay back on some pile of junk looking bored.

"How should I know?" Tugger asked in bored manner. "It's Alonzo and Munkustrap who think something is up. They've just roped us into it."

"I'm sure that Pouncival has something to do with it," Mistoffelees replied with his paws tightening.

Rum Tum Tugger rolled his eyes, knowing how much he seem to have it in for Pouncival and his brothers. "Let me guess, Pouncival did something bad that has pissed that person off and now they are coming here to finish us off, right?"

The magical cat cocked an eyebrow at him. "How'd you know that?"

"Only thing you seem to think about when things start to look bad for us," The Maine Coon chuckled. "Boy, you haven't been the same since Plato mated with your sister. Made your hatred for them even worse come to say it."

"That's not the point," Mistoffelees retorted. "Victoria going off with Plato is only just a few things that I—"

"Guys!" Alonzo's voice cried out as he ran back into the Junkyard through a small hole in the fence.

Immediately, Munkustrap rushed over to him. "You found them?"

"Yes," Alonzo nodded. "There's about thirty of them, though I reckon if we can get them into a tight area and surprise them, then we might be able to push them back."

Munkustrap then looked over at the others staring at him awaiting orders. "Ok then guys, find a chosen hidden space for yourselves, then when they enter through that small entrance, let them have it."

The others nodded and quickly found their spots from where they were going to surprise them. With all eyes focused on that one hole in the fence they waited….

…They waited…

…And waited…

Not a pin drop was heard from any as they all felt their hearts beaten faster as time went on. Suddenly there was a puff of smoke from nearby and all of the Jellicle toms there turned round wondering what was going on, to their shock, it was a group of ten or twelve toms standing there, but what made the Jellicles' blood run cold was the sight of one tom in particular.

A brown tabby tom, one that they knew from a few days ago was standing there. The tom looked at the stunned Jellicles and smiled. "Go," uttered Adamin as in a flash, his troupe of toms lunged forward and began attack the Jellicle toms. Adamin watched the attack take place and he shot a small burst of electricity from his paw into the air and exploded like a small firework. This was the cue to bring in the rest.

Without anyone knowing, the rest of the tribe, led by Dilaver and Nicolae, entered the small hole in the fence and quickly joined into the fray. Some of the Jellicles like Munkustrap, Alonzo and even Mistoffelees were managing to hold their own, though others were getting attacked pretty easily. From a rusty oil drum that he stood on top of, Adamin scanned that mess of a crowd looking for any signs of Pouncival. To his dismay, he couldn't see him anywhere, let only find any sign of a heir of Macavity in there, one that he didn't know what that feline looked like to begin with.

Nicolae raced up to Adamin after battling through the crowd. "You see him?"

"He's not there," Adamin growled with annoyance. "We've got to find him and that heir soon."

"But what about them?" Nicolae asked pointing back at the skirmish.

Adamin eyed the scene thinking to him self. "I'm sure Dilaver and his guys can managed this themselves. You and I should go and try and find Pouncival and get him instead."

"Very well then," Nicolae agreed and with a last glance at the battle, the two hurried off into the Junkyard trying to find the rest of the tribe. Just as they turned to head off further into the Junkyard, they had caught Mistoffelees' attention, notably Adamin.

"Another magical cat?" Mistoffelees muttered to himself in incredulity, though his thoughts were shattered quickly as he narrowly avoided an attack from a large beefy looking grey tabby before striking a blast of electricity at the tom, which led for that certain tom to make a retreat. Mistoffelees then turned his gaze back at Adamin and Nicolae as they headed over towards one of the dens, which he assumed they were looking for something.

Then it hit him, they were after Pouncival and _maybe_ even Jemima. Perhaps even _Victoria_! The thought that they could harm his own sister set off a sense of anger and fear within in him. He quickly looked back seeing his fellow tribe members still fighting the vile tribe of toms, though some of them like Asparagus and Plato looked fairly battered and beaten. But he had to leave them in order to stop Adamin and Nicolae from whatever they were about to attempt. The battle had only just started.

**XXX**

As the battle took place, the rest of the tribe were huddled together for safety in Old Deuteronomy's den, which was in fact the body shell of an old Vauxhall Astra situated on the far end of the yard. Even with it being the largest of the dens, it was still crowded with all the Jellicles situated in that space. Jennyanydots and Electra huddled close together (Skimbleshanks not being there due to him working on another Night Mail express to the North) as the Gumbie cat began trying to comfort her daughter's fear by telling her some stories.

Coricopat and Tantomile were nestled nearby the tribe leader, who sat in silence for what could happen, as the twins were in another state of their deep physic thinking sensing how the battle was taking place. Bombalurina was sitting with her back against the door of the car as she waited like the others for any news. Gus was telling Jellylorum and Etcetera a few of his old theatre stories to cheer them up, on the other hand, Rumpleteazer was feeling restless about Mungojerrie and the thought of seeing Adamin and Nicolae, she and her partner in crime hadn't been the same since those two had returned.

A reluctant and bored Tumblebrutus was there trying to comfort Rumpleteazer, who in turn was trying to equally comfort a weeping Victoria over the status of her mate's life.

Pouncival and Jemima were huddled together in a corner of the den keeping things to themselves, though their thoughts drifted back to that rainy day which they only narrowly escaped with possibly their lives. Jemima then looked over towards her mother, sitting in another corner of the den on her own looking more scared than the others in the room. It always made Jemima sad seeing her mother look like that, she had heard of stories that involved her mother and aunt during their times with Macavity, she didn't want to imagine what horrors they would have suffered. Some of the tribe had said to her that Demeter wasn't the same afterwards.

"I'm scared," Jemima whispered to her lover as she nuzzled into her chest.

Pouncival, while trying to hold a brave face, felt the same, but didn't want Jemima to feel any worse. "It'll be ok, I'm sure Munkustrap and the others can stop those guys coming in."

"Why weren't you and Tumblebrutus invited to help?" Jemima then asked.

Pouncival looked back at his bored brother and sighed. "Admetus requested we stay here as he had Plato to help him, but didn't want us to get harmed as he said we were too young, even though me and Tumble are now adults."

The rusty black queen didn't reply, though Coricopat and Tantomile suddenly jerked up and spoke simultaneously, which made a few of them jump in surprise. "Someone's coming!"

Quickly, everyone there hid in any place they could find from whatever was coming their way. Looking through a small rusted hole in the shell of the car, Pouncival peered through with one eye and noticed not one, but _two_ cats coming in their direction. "Wait a minute," he muttered as their blackened forms came into the moonlight.

The bi-coloured tom gasped when he knew straight away who they were. "They're back!" he spluttered in shock, breaking the silence in which the two toms outside stopped in their tracks as they faced the den. Others in that den gave him dirty looks, mostly Tumblebrutus, for him perhaps blowing their cover.

Without warning, Adamin fired a bolt a lightning from his paw, which hit the den and almost made it shatter. "Run!" Tumblebrutus cried as the others made a mad dash for their lives out of the den. Some like Jennyanydots and Jellylorum stayed with their family members while some like Victoria and Tumblebrutus ran away, and the latter did so without helping his own littermate.

"Come back for me!" Pouncival cried for his brother as he held Jemima by the paw as they ran out, though Tumblebrutus was soon out off sight leaving Pouncival and Jemima on their own.

"This way!" Came the sound of Demeter's voice to the pair as they saw Demeter, along with Bombalurina, motioning them to hide under some the junk they were under. The young couple didn't need asking twice as they made a beeline to Demeter, then suddenly another bolt of lightning was struck, this time hitting both Pouncival and Jemima sending them scattering across the Junkyard.

Pouncival slammed into a pile of junk and rolled down the mound until he reached the bottom, earning him a few bruises in the process. He glanced around briefly and saw Jemima had landed with great force into a pile of junk of her own and she was knocked out unconscious, in which Demeter rushed out in a panic to collect her.

"Jemima!" Pouncival cried, though groaned as he felt pain shoot up right through his body. He then turned his eyes over to Adamin and Nicolae, both of which stared back at him, and that Pouncival stared back with such hatred for harming his lover.

"I'm sorry about this," Adamin said as he raised a paw ready to strike down Pouncival with another magic attack. "I must stop you from fulfilling the prophecy."

Pouncival staggered as he stood up, ready to face them off. "What the hell are you talking about now?"

"Probably for the best that you don't know," Adamin replied as his paw glowed white with energy, then suddenly the large gang of toms being led by Dilaver rushed into the clearing and interrupting the scene. Suddenly a sense of horror griped Pouncival, what had happened to his dad, his brother and the rest?

"That was too easy!" Dilaver laughed menacingly as his tribe began to ramshackle any nearby dens for their own benefits. Then his eyes turned towards, Pouncival and a wicked grin appeared. "Well, well, well, isn't it the little bastard who got away from me, well not for long."

He didn't know why, but Pouncival suddenly found himself walking forward to face the evil tribe leader, almost as he wanted revenge himself.

"Let us finish him off!" Nicolae snapped. "You've done your part and you've gotten your reward—"

"Get out of it," Dilaver spat at him. "I want this tom's blood badly." Then without warning, he lunged forward and began brutally beating up Pouncival, despite Pouncival trying his best to fend off the older tom. The tribe of toms watching the fight began whooping and cheering their leader on as Pouncival was thrown around like a ragdoll. After hearing what was going on, Tumblebrutus raced back but could only watch in dismay as his littermate was slammed against a thick pipe by the large evil tom and fell to the ground face first, his face now covered with blood. He raced forward in trying to help him, but was quickly knocked back by two large calico toms, who quickly started to lay in to him.

Adamin and Nicolae, who had wanted to do this by their selves, could only watch Dilaver as he prepared to finish off Pouncival. "I get the last laugh this time," Dilaver hissed into Pouncival's ear, the young tom could barely respond as he was so badly beaten and close to blacken out like before. With the backing of the many toms urging their leader to kill him, Dilaver raised his paw ready to give him the final blow. Instead, he found himself knocked to his side by a blast of magic.

Dilaver angrily looked to Adamin, thinking he had done it, though he soon notice that everyone there all were facing in the direction from where the blast had come from. Dilaver looked in their direction and was stunned to see a younger tuxedo tom standing there with his hands still glowing white with energy.

"_Another_ magical cat? Here?" Adamin uttered in shock, seeing one cat like him here in all places, all he knew that all magical cats worked for Macavity, but this was something he wasn't expecting.

"Get out of here," Mistoffelees hissed as right behind, Munkustrap, Alonzo and the others who had tried to fend them off, all looking battered and bruised, came running in from behind him and charged at the stunned gang of vile toms. Pouncival let out a little sigh of relief thinking that things were going to be ok.

"You couldn't wait to get into the Junkyard that you just _left_ us back there _without_ carrying on fighting?" Mistoffelees added, with a hint of amusement in his voice as he let out a blast of magic at a charging tom.

Dilaver, who had meant to kill Pouncival, growled in anger as he staggered forward to fight off a nearby Munkustrap. Pouncival saw this as a chance to get away and he slowly crawled away from the battle and headed towards the hiding spot where Demeter, Bombalurina and Jemima were in. Though he felt himself getting weaker by the second until he no longer had any more strength and collapsed.

At the same time, Adamin, who was still bewildered of seeing another magical cat, let out a lightning bolt attack at Mistoffelees, which found it's target and knocked him back. By this point it was a scene of chaos and destruction, it was impossible to tell who was getting the upper hand as several cats fell to ground after being beaten up. Adamin, seeing that it wasn't going the way he wanted, turn to leave with Nicolae, who was fighting off Admetus and clawed his face and made the patched tom to fall to his knees.

"Come on!" Adamin cried out to Nicolae. "We've gotta get out of here!"

"But what about the heir?" Nicolae asked in panic.

"Forget that," Adamin retoured. "I think that the cat should be dead with all this, we've failed!"

The long grey haired tom was startled. Never in his time with Adamin and their missions for Macavity that they would've failed, he didn't want to think of the consequences. "But surely that certain someone has to be here."

"Never mind," Adamin sighed through grinded teeth as he glanced back at the battle. "let's just get—AHHHH!"

Adamin was struck by a lighting attack from Mistoffelees and fell to the ground. His arm was badly hit and was bleeding badly, but rather than panic, Adamin faced Mistoffelees in annoyance as if he had simply spilled milk on his fur. Adamin's paw began to glow a golden hue and he place his paw on his shoulder and slowly led his paw down his arm.

Mistoffelees and Nicolae watched as Adamin's paw went down, any trace of the bleeding arm simply vanished until by the time he has gotten to end of his arm, the bleeding had all but gone after simply wiping it away, as if Mistoffelees' hadn't attacked him in the first place.

"What kind of magic is _that_?!" Mistoffelees gasped, his eyes widen in astonishment. Then while in his state of shock, Adamin fired a lighting strike at Mistoffelees and blasted him back and was then rendered unconscious.

Adamin and Nicolae made a retreat out of the Junkyard, but then if the night couldn't get crazier, bright flashes of light appeared around the Junkyard which made everyone stop fighting, then an evil laugh was heard, one that only Adamin, Nicolae and the Jellicle tribe only knew too well.

"Macavity!" Demeter cried holding her daughter in her arms as she looked around for any sign of the mystery cat.

Dilaver, unlike all the Jellicle cats there, had no fear and simply laughed. "Alright then, come out and take me on, I'm waiting!"

"No don't!" Nicolae cried out to warn him, but it was too late. The darkened body of Macavity appeared above the den of Old Deuteronomy's, and the mystery cat grinned evilly at Dilaver, looking as poised as ever.

"I'm quite glad you requested that," Macavity spoke coldly that made everyone shudder with fear. "My heir is somewhere here, and I think _you_ may have done something with that feline."

Though several of his toms were ready to take a back pedal and run away, Dilaver still felt like he was talking to an overgrown kitten. "Oh yeah? You mean that I've killed your bastard kitten? What you going to do then, harm me?"

"…No," Macavity replied grimly.

"What then?" Dilaver grinned with him crossing his arms.

"I'm going to KILL you!"

Then Macavity leapt down from the top of the den from an impressive length and landed on top of Dilaver. What happened next was sheer utter brutality. Macavity started to brutally slash away at Dilaver's face. Despite the screams of protest from his prey as his face was quickly covered in blood. His own tribe couldn't even assist him as Macavity was simply ripping him to shreds. Macavity then started to rip away at the tom's stomach area and started to rip out all of Dilaver's innards as the screams of protests continued from Dilaver. Others looked away and felt sick at the sight they were seeing while Adamin and Nicolae watched helplessly as Dilaver was now being beaten to death by their master.

Then the screaming stopped.

Macavity, now cover with blood on parts of his red fur, lifted the mutilated corpse of his opponent above his head laughing manically before throwing the body at several members of Dilaver's gang. Nothing happened for what felt like ages of silence, and then the tribe of toms carried away the body of their former leader, who was so badly attacked that it was almost impossible to recognise him. The tribe made a hasty retreat out of the Junkyard.

Macavity's gaze soon fell upon a terrified Demeter. "Hello there darling, I just came round to say hello." His grin widened when he then saw Jemima in Demeter's arms. "And what a beautiful young queen we have here."

"Get out of here!" Said a battered looking Munkustrap as he got in front of his mate and stepdaughter.

Macavity's smile did not fade. "Not to worry, I was planning to head off anyway." He paused, as he looked back seeing Adamin and Nicolae slowly sneaking out of the Junkyard. "I have a few matters of my own to settle." The large ginger tom struck two blasts of lightning at Adamin and Nicolae as they screamed in pain, before Macavity raced up and grabbed them by their necks. "You two…have failed…" Then with in a cloud of smoke, the three toms disappeared from the Junkyard.

For the all the Jellicles there, neither celebrated that they had won. Many of the beaten toms that had been involved with the fighting were quickly helped by their respected mates and were hurried back to their dens for treatment. Demeter just sat there in silence and then burst into tears, only to be comforted by Munkustrap.

Tumblebrutus raced over to Pouncival, lying down face first, to help him. "Come on man, wake up!" Tumble said to his littermate lifting him up as he tried slapping his face to wake him. Pouncival's eyes slowly opened as he could only see a scene of the Jellicles all looking confused, upset and angry.

He saw his dad helping Asparagus back to his family and Victoria rushed into the arms of Plato and began sobbing into his chest, then rushing over to the body of her brother lying unconscious and began weeping even more. Mungojerrie and Rumpleteazer kept their distance from everyone and embraced tightly, not wanting to be separated like that again. Rum Tum Tugger sat on the ground with his arms draped over his knees looking dismayed, not even Bombalurina trying to comfort him made the Maine Coon feel any better. "What…what happened to end the fight? And what about Jemima"

Tumblebrutus bit his bottom lip as he saw Old Deuteronomy slowly walked past them and watched his own tribe in a state of disrepair. Then looked back seeing Jemima being carried off by Munkustrap. "I'll you when we get you back to my den," Tumblebrutus in the most honest way Pouncival had ever heard him speak.

The rest of the night would be for the Jellicles to lick their wounds, little did any of them knew, more blood would be shed.

* * *

**...Eee, scary stuff. Told you there would be a few deaths coming up, and we've only just started too! Glad this chapter is over as I didn't really like it, but review please to keep me motivated and give me any constructive criticism you may have as that would be really helpful. Until then, catch you later. **


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